The Bird's Nest – 16 Apr 2022
Altered line ups allow The Slow Cooked Bears to turn up the heat.
It was a slightly unusual turn of events that led to the final configuration of this gig. Put on at the Bird's Nest in Deptford in South London, two bands found themselves a member down. The Derby based outfit Muddibrooke were without a drummer and Brighton band Warning Signal have recently parted ways with their bassist. This meant only The Slow Cooked Bears were performing in their original guise and took on the headline slot. In spite of these alterations the show went on and was a great success.
Kicking things off for the evening were Muddibrooke who opted to play a stripped down acoustic set. This had a heavy country feel to it. It's testament to the strength of their songs that their ordinarily heavier grunge sounding originals mapped so well onto an acoustic format. Two that stood out were “Liverpool Guy”, which addresses the unwanted advances of a less than savoury sounding character and “Devil”. They also took on a couple of covers that could easily seem daunting to a lesser vocalist. One of the things that did stand out was lead singer Anna's voice. They finished off on a Ting Tings into Johnny Cash medley, which is not a combination I would have expected but which worked well. This was a spirited start to the evening and they put on a good show but it was a shame not to hear them as fully amplified live band. As soon as that happens again I'll be sure to check them out.
Warning Signal were the middle band and they also put in a sterling effort. They chose to remain plugged in utilising just guitar and drums. They retained a good full sound.
The Slow Cooked Bears were a little apprehensive about having been moved to the top of the bill. They needn't have been. Theirs was an electrifying set that really took the audience along with them. By the end they had a good crowd engaging in some creative dancing and a very sweaty frontman right in the midst of it all.
After the bands there was a chap dressed like a Crust punk emceeing and espousing the virtues of narcotics a drum and bass soundtrack . It was a slightly unexpected but amusing concluding point to the evening and we left the revelers to it in order to get the bus home.