So it’s Thursday night and one of my favourite nights of the week to be out in London and Camden town especially being a mecca not only for the music but for the sheer number of legendary venues on offer.

At a rather enthusiastic time of 7:30pm I arrive at the Black Heart fully aware it’s a pub as well as a venue having stopped off there a few months ago while on one of the Camden crawls. As I ordered a couple of London brewed pints I couldn’t help but notice standing next to me at the bar was the entire band, well there is only two of them Eoin (guitar and vocals) and Rory (drums) sinking a few Peroni’s at the bar looking much like gig goers themselves. This is an unusual sight for me but also one that highlights perhaps the rawness and no bullshit type of a gig I was about to experience. Three pints and a few games of pool later to add another surprise to the evening, Steve Lamacq or Lammo as he’s known strolls casually past me in the bar clearly taking in some atmosphere before the gig in true Camden style.  

As I drew closer to the scheduled start time of 9.15 I made my way to the gig room upstairs to hear the last five minutes and very loud guitars of “dolomite minor” before the room quickly emptied out at the end of their set. Much to my delight, this provided the perfect opportunity to head to the front of the stage and most importantly position myself in the right place should any moshpit break out. I have to admit I have been a moshpit junkie since I was 14 when I first experienced this form of controlled violence at a wonderstuff gig in 1994 and I had a feeling this gig may deliver.

I first experienced Drenge after seeing them in a very hot and sweaty side tent amongst Hyde Park as they warmed up a shy rolling stones crowd in the middle of a July afternoon. At this gig, Eoin, clearly disregarding the static, reserved crowd jumped over the stage fence with a fender over his shoulder strumming his guitar while walking through the crowd singing with no mic, unusual, but a very memorable way to end a set. Hearing them play also brought back some of the grunge in me from the days of listening to Nirvana and Soundgarden not to forget my naff undercut and bleached blonde hair…  

So onto tonight’s gig, as the no nonsense Eoin and Rory enter the stage they get straight into things by opening proceedings with “Gun Crazy” allowing the crowd to warm up a little bit as beers are finished and heads start to move more enthusiastically as each song is played. Then all of a sudden as the more familiar “bloodsports” is played this almost instantaneously turns the very small area at the front into a twenty or so mosh pit including some rather brave girls donning big black hats. Three songs later and the darkness and awesome riffs of “Blackwaters” , calm is restored in the room with the help of “fuckabout” to make way for a little less noise and some clearer vocals. The audience were then treated with eight minutes worth of “Let’s pretend” ending with a brilliant crescendo that received a well deserved raucous round of applause from the entire room. I can’t help but wonder at this point, is there any more time for another cheeky mosh?… of course there was and they really did save the best till last tearing through “face like a skull” with the mentalness at the front increasing a few more notches as everyone spun round and bounced off eachother even harder than before, knowing this might be the last one of the night. Indeed it was and as my mate told me afterwards, “wow you really went for it at the end! You looked like a man possessed” If you love a lively gig then you won’t be disappointed by this humble two man band.