Newport’s Deathtraps seem to be popping up all over the place at the moment, and if they keep this rate of gigs up I’ll have seen them more than Accept before the Summer is out. Its all very positive stuff for the band though as even just a short month on from my last review of them right here on RPM they’ve already added a thundering new track to their setlist, its one all about covers bands called ‘Play The One We Know’ perhaps their catchiest tune to date too. There’s no fear of them getting that call here in The Moon though, No Siree, as this has to be one of the coolest underground venues I’ve attended recently, and I can only but wonder how it’s taken me so long to discover it. You see the punters here tonight are all craving original live music, and that’s why the noisy bastards otherwise known as Veej, Fraser and Bullet Von Deathtrap are instantly doing brisk business over on their merch stall straight after they finish delivering their dirty deeds.

I have to admit I knew very little about Electric Eel Shock before tonight, well nothing other than they used to be briefly signed to Gearhead (which is always a good sign) and that they come from Japan. In saying this it takes them approximately 20 seconds of opener ‘Suicide Rock & Roll’ to have me whooping it up down the front with the diehards (of which there are a considerable amount) as I’m immediately won over by the band’s infectious charm.

I mean how could you not instantly love a band that has within its ranks one Tomoharu Ito, a nude drummer (well nude albeit for a sock on his cock that he stretches out to aid his headbanging at appropriate times during their set) someone who also uses 4 drumsticks live – two in each hand. Add to this a bass player (Kazuto Maekawa) who is one of the coolest looking four stringers this side of Dee Dee Ramone and a singer (Akihito Morimoto) who also plays a Flying V (when he’s not trying to eat it) like an in his prime Randy Rhodes. You put all of this in the mix and I’m sure you will agree you have a mighty musical proposition at hand.

It’s the organised chaos the band call songs that really add the icing on the garage rock cake though and with Akihito ironically boasting that in spite of the fact that it had been three years since the band last played Cardiff they had written two songs during that time, I can’t help but chuckle at the band’s self-deprecating humour whilst grooving along to tracks like ‘So Much 80s’, ‘Red Devil’ and ‘Favourite No 9’. Electric Eel Shock (like most of us here at RPM) certainly love their cheesy metal and there are a few times tonight where I can almost feel a human pyramid coming on amongst my RPM gig going amigos.

Keeping it short (which you must have to be to actually play The Moon and the celling is bloody low) but very sweet Electric Eel Shock leave us with the instant classic  ‘Metal Man’ a track that brings back memories of when I first heard 44 Magnum’s iconic ‘Street Rock’N Roller’ album, and you ain’t gonna see that reference in many reviews anytime soon that’s for sure. Then again there really aren’t very many bands out there like Electric Eel Shock, to miss them live really is a crime, one I’m thankfully no longer guilty off.

Author: Johnny Hayward