It’s difficult to know who’s more terrifying: Evil Blizzard or their audience. The band are a demented vision in bloodied bandages and sinister latex masks, while their audience come armed with face tattoos and fancy dress; scattered among them are fully-grown humans dressed as deformed babies, cats in trilbies, and variety of farmyard beasts. These creatures have gathered to worship a band with four bass players, a singing drummer and a penchant for the kind of swirling, maniacal space-rock that sits squarely between Hawkwind, Public Image Ltd and the Butthole Surfers.
The relationship between band and audience is delightfully antagonistic (booing the highlights is a highlight, and the band routinely abuse those watching), while (Open Up The) Red Box, Fast Forward Rewind and Are You Evil are all monstrous combinations of Sabbath riffery, squealing feedback and interstellar, overdriven noise. Towards the end of a chaotic 90 minutes, Hawkwind’s Mr Dibbs joins the band on stage for an unhinged finale (although it could be anyone in that mask), and a character known as Binman (appropriately dressed in Y-fronts and a rubbish bin) dances blindly before toppling into the audience and fighting his way back on stage, forlornly failing to keep his tattered dignity intact. It’s truly not your regular Saturday night out.
