Cabbage wants to make you sweat… so get wet!
Sound display from The Rhythm Method on the warm up. A chilled out Suggs from Madness with elements of Squeeze, with jamming sintyme sounds. Front man Joe swirls lyrics about parties and too much beer. His poems had me in stitches.
The lights go down and Gary Numan pumps out the system as the band walk on and lead singer Broadbent wastes no time - “Hello Nottingham, we are CABBAGE” - and straight in with Arms of Pleonexia. The crowd cheer as if their football team has just kicked off in a final.
Four songs in and they’re living up to the hype; every musician in the place was nodding and smiling at the impressive cohesion of the Mossley five piece, who by some weird trick seem to be playing your favourite hits of the future. The crowd respond by singing every word back to them.
The bagginess of smashers like Dinner Lady brings a whisper to the lips… this lot have got what The Happy Mondays had…
It’s the kind of laconic attitude you’d expect from a funk band, but with much tighter trousers and much better hair; tunes like Kevin and Uber Capitalists utterly ring out this little venue. The crowd throw limbs in every direction.
This gig gave us a taster of what’s to be expected on their new album, out later this year, and I reckon it’s going to be one of the one of the best of 2018.
These chaps have clearly been away in the lab, paying close attention to what’s going on in the media, such as broken Britain and everyone being politically charged. There’s even the inevitable presence of Donald Trump: “Death to Donald Trump, There's something about politics in America.“
From top to bottom it was an ace performance. And with a ton of sell out shows ahead of them, I’m sure these guys will be in for a whirlwind ride if they keep delivering rock solid punk bangers.
CABBAGE were at The Bodega on Thursday 1 February. Their Debut Album, Nihilistic Glamour Shots, will be released on Friday 30 March. You can pre-order it here.
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