MARCH 2005: Live Review – The Ga*Gas (with Testosterone), Cafe Nirvana, Wigan

Who: The Ga*Gas, Zen Motel, Testosterone
Where: Cafe Nirvana, Wigan
When:  March 5th 2005

From the press, to the Internet, to conversations between folks across the borough, there is a buzz ahead of tonight’s visit to Wigan by London rockers The Ga*Ga*s, heightening the air of electricity surrounding the newly re-vamped Café Nirvana.

Rock fans of all ages gather outside the venue in anticipation. However, only ten minutes before the masses are due to crash through the doors, the two support bands are still stuck in sound-check and various members of staff are hurriedly trying to finish tasks ahead of this venue’s grand reopening.

But last minute scrambles are not the thing for uber-cool rock stars. According to one bystander, The Ga*Ga*s are not even in the venue.

Not to worry, we’ll catch them later, as local pop-punk heroes Testosterone take to the stage to open the show. And what an opening it is! Combining all the best bits of Blink 182, The Offspring and NOFX, adding surfer-rock style guitar solos and topping it off with a good dose of humour, the boys whip the crowd into a frenzy, encouraging them to dance along to songs about girls, being rock stars, and an unrequited love for Avril Lavigne.

Yet it’s not just Testosterone’s good-time rock ‘n’ roll that keeps the enthusiastic crowd entertained, as the onstage banter, and faux-rivalry between frontman Dave Costello and rhythm guitarist Ian Graham elicits loud cheers and laughter to the point where Ian produces a T-shirt mocking his bandmate, and awards it the person who dances with the most energy and excitement to their next song.

“When I was in High School I was a loser, now I’m in a band, I’m so much cooler,” sings Costello in High School, as a throng of enthusiastic girls rush towards the stage to get a little bit closer to one of the coolest bands around.

You can’t help but feel for London sleaze-rockers, Zen Motel, as they take to the stage. With their predecessors having hometown advantage, and the headliners backed by a huge record deal and tonnes of promotion, singer/bassist Lee Wray & co. have the hardest job of the evening.

As such, the band get off to a slow start, seemingly playing to themselves. Yet the crowd soon warms to their infectious brand of sleazy, dirty rock, saluting a sound which comes across as something akin to Guns n Roses getting into fisticuffs with Motorhead, by indulging in some vigorous headbanging.

Their set draws to a climatic close, shaking the club to the ground with Devil Song, a thumping anthem baring more than passing resemblance to Atomatic Bitchwax.

But now for the main event.

When your bass player is former Anti-Product loony, Toshi, you come with a personal recommendation from Wildhearts legend, Ginger, and you’re label-mates with legends like Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, you’d have every reason to be confident.

And The Ga*Gas surely are.

Frontman Tommy Gleeson certainly oozes the kind of swagger normally reserved for ego-fuelled, stadium-filling rock stars, as he leads his band into the kind of radio-friendly, 80’s metal influenced, anthemic rock that landed them a deal with Sanctuary Records.

Carefully constructed songs like Left Of Centre and Jessica float and glide into every nook and cranny of Café Nirvana, filling the entire venue with their ‘Old Skool’ rock, and for the first half of their set at least, you can’t fail to be impressed.

However, after that, something happens that caps off the earlier buzz with an awkward sense of anti-climax.

The enthusiasm of the once large and eager crowd surrounding the stage at the start of The Ga*Ga*s set has waned, and now, while only a few hardened fans remain rocking out at the front of the stage, most gig-goers simply treat the band as backing music to their conversations.

Not only that, but the so-called ‘Saviours Of Rock ‘n’ Roll’, noted for being exciting and fresh, are, only halfway through their set, becoming somewhat bland.

It seems as if The Ga*Ga*s have quit playing any actual songs, and are simply churning out layer-upon-layer of “Bourbon & Cigarettes” rock ‘n’ roll riffage, which, although good enough to impress Sanctuary bosses, fails to impact on the Wigan crowd.

The Ga*Ga*s, with all their hype and media attention promised us so much but, in the end, deliver so little, in striking contract to the top-notch performances given by Testosterone and Zen Motel earlier in the evening.
By Chris Skoyles