Grim Dylan
Healthy Junkies
Her
Black Nazarene
Purple Turtle, London
Thursday August 19 2011

Just recently I've been hearing a thing or two about an impending grunge revival. These days it seems that every time a dressed-down band with loud guitars comes along, they're held up as evidence that grunge is a-comin' back, regardless of whether the bands themselves see the connection. You can ask The Dogbones all about that one - in fact, I did just that, in this interview. There are at least nine Facebook pages devoted to the grunge revival (yes, really: nine!) - and if it's on Facebook, it must be true, right? (Not sure why this lot think it's all going to kick off in Miami, mind). Even The Guardian ran a feature on it.

Personally, I'm not sure why we ever needed grunge, as a specific sub-section of rock music, in the first place. After all, to a great extent scruffy bands with loud guitars are what rock 'n' roll has always been about. It seems to me that identifying such bands as a particular genre of rock is a bit like pointing to a tree trunk and claiming that it's merely a branch. But now that grunge has happened once, there's no shortage of people predicting that it'll happen twice. And some would say tonight's bands are among the new breed making it happen. Well, we'll see about that.

Maybe it's because the name drops a misleading hint, but I expected Black Nazarene to be some sort of death metal outfit with a nice line in songs that go 'Huuurrrgghh!'. Perhaps I was thinking of Impaled Nazarene (and, believe me, I try very hard not to think of Impaled Nazarene).

Well, Black Nazarene certainly occupy the Metaaal end of things. They kick up a frightening racket, powered along by fast, tight-as-a-gnat's-chuff drumming. But they're melodic, too, like a stripped-down Soilwork or a less ludicrously OTT Children Of Bodom. Lead and backing vocals intertwine, guitars mesh together and chime, and even at their most intense Black Nazarene never bury their tunes beneath mere metalnoize. I'm no metalhead, but I like the way this band dumps the excess baggage that too often surrounds metal and strips it back to the essence.

Her come from Italy. That probably explains the name, which I imagine sounds much better if English is your second language. Fortunately, Her make a noise that sounds pretty good in any language.

They're a direct, uncomplicated, pop-rock outfit, with songs that power along at a brisk clip, as if eager to get to the chorus. And when the chorus does arrive, you can bet it'll be of the hands-in-the-air rousing variety. Her's singer belts out the lyrics with a grin in her voice, all the while whacking fuzzed 'n' chunky riffs out of her white Telecaster. It's guileless stuff, for sure - Her aren't about to challenge the boundaries of modern rock music, or any high falutin' stuff like that. They're just here to generate a good time to some peppy, poppy, rock 'n' roll. And sometimes, that's all you need. Her have just enough instinctive rawness about their sound to make their pop-rock confections work.

If there really is going to be a grunge revival, Healthy Junkies are the most obvious candidates for stardom we've seen so far tonight, if only because their music has the essential ripped-up, ragged-edged quality. The band have got that tough-but-tender thing well sorted: the bass and drums kick the rhythm around with bovver boots while Nina Courson's vocals Jefferson Airplane over choppy seas of guitar.

There's a bit of good old glam in that guitar sound, as it happens, but it's a shredded, tarnished glam that's got the grime of London streets embedded in it. Healthy Junkies walk the line between brightly accessible and enticingly disreputable. The guitar chugs and grinds like an overdriven cement mixer, but the vocals pirouette neatly around the scuzzy guitar-fuzz, even as Nina steps lightly round her patch of stage while the band stirs up the noise. The Junkies don't neglect the catchy chorus side of things, either: bet you half the audience will be singing 'Copycat' all the way home.

Well, Grim Dylan are definitely down with The Grunge. The guitarist is wearing a Nirvana hoodie. Dead giveaway, that. They're a power trio with a distinct absence of frills and flounces - just a more-rock-than-punk racket pointed straight at our heads, as purposeful and as powerful as a rally car stripped to the chassis.

There's a laconic off-handness to the vocals, as if the singer's taken a sidelong look at the world and concluded that it's all a bit crap - and now she's going to express that view to us in a vexed caterwaul.

The guitar sets up a pulverizing buzz, the drumbeats whack everything into place with the precision of well-aimed bombs, and Grim Dylan rock it up with impressive aplomb.

Grim Dylan's grunge-fan status is reinforced by a cover of Nirvana's 'Aneurysm', which is perhaps a touch too much - a Nirvana hoodie and a Nirvana cover? C'mon, one or the other, but both amounts to rubbing our noses in it. It's almost as if Grim Dylan regard Nirvana as a cross between a good-luck talisman and a band of honourary big brothers - and, really, they don't need to worry. They don't need to tip their hat to their heroes with a too-obvious cover. Their own songs are plenty strong enough to carry the show.

So, this grunge revival of which we've heard so much. Have we just seen some of the bands that are set to spearhead the whole thing? In a way I hope not. Because tonight's bands are plenty good enough to make it on their own merits without a genre revival pushing them up by artificial means. It might be possible to surf the nu wave of grunge and then jump off before the wave breaks, but that's a high risk strategy.

Grunge may come, or it may not. Those nine Facebook groups may be a genuine manifestation of the zeitgeist, or they may just be wishful thinking. But I know this: grunge needs tonight's bands rather more than the bands need grunge.

Grim Dylan: MySpace | Facebook

Healthy Junkies: MySpace | Facebook

Her: Website MySpace | Facebook

Black Nazarene: MySpace | Facebook

For more photos from this gig,
find the bands by name here.