The 3 act gig was promoted as a night of high energy Queer/Trans punk. I therefore wasn’t anticipating a night of comfortable beige, and thankfully a glorious euphoric evening embracing and celebrating our happy range of genders and sexualities followed.

JK would have thrown a narrow minded bigoted wobbly as toilet monitor. Another big plus.

Headliners Gaydar highlighted that any of the three acts tonight could have honestly headlined, and that was one of the many truths of that evening.

First up was the wonderful bela spit, a band whose members have a strong musical pedigree from Leeds Conservatoire. I particularly enjoyed the jazz structure behind the anarchic gothic theatre of the band.

Outside of bela spit, lead singer Iris Casling has built up a reputation playing Double Bass, Nika Ticciati plays piano, bass and drums, Scarlett Baxter and Beth Veasey both play drums.  I got the impression bela spit was one of those concepts where members could express themselves in a different dark and heavy way – the resulting performance was open, honest, raw, raunchy and fun.

The bela spit set included a song wishing Pope Francis to get well soon (a track the band admitted hadn’t aged well) and Immaculate Clapception, another bright and breezy gothic tale celebrating contracting an STD.

Meanwhile the bela spit style was pleasantly wild, loose and free and which had echos back to 80s goth and shock horror. Musically sparce, I thought I spotted but 3 strings on the band’s guitar, it packed a full and pleasing punch.

The band’s album spit/swallow sets the scene, much like the live set it’s a lively, grungy, challenging triumph which explores life’s more base side. 

The act that were sandwiched or perhaps spit-roasted in the middle of the evening, was Psevdo Cvnt (I choose the Instagram spelling of their name as I don’t wish to offend Google’s prissy rules and this site gains few enough readers as it is).

The duo of Psevdo Cvnt offer a set that to my mind is 100% performance, an improvised set of grinding and rolling around while offering the entire range of human vocal expression. Musically this is a full on set of pulsing, banging electronica accompanied by dark vocal tones including mutters, shouts and vocals noise from the duo. 

The Psevdo Cvnt set was hugely provocative but also massive fun and total entertainment. Unsettling queer doom techno.

By comparison while open and honest was the theme of the evening, Gaydar had more of a traditional early New Wave style. I appreciated the Newcastle based band’s cover of the Damned and New Rose, the early punk single which launched a million hearts into a musical journey away from the mainstream (mine included). In Gaydar’s safe hands, it felt as fresh and edgy as it did 49 years ago.

The common thread running through this evening was that there was a lot of tongue in cheek (not necessarily their own cheek) fun in this set.

I think I also caught a version of Peaches Fvck The Pain Away (I’ve never utilised so many V letters in a review) which the band also make their own. There were also a host of punky, inspired bangers of their own.

Jan Got Her Tits Done in Turkey is one; a cautionary tale of having a kidney stolen while under the knife, and which gives a strong flavour of what the band is about. Strong, frantic, observant, in your face punk and likely to have a snog mosh.

Gaydar were in the end far too modest about not being suitable headliners, they were the punching fun glue that melded this evening together.

* words and photos by tiggerligger