GIG REVIEW: The Bar Stool Preachers + Gimp Fist @ The Georgian Theatre, Stockton, Friday 30 August 2024
Brighton’s The Bar Stool Preachers, who started out as a ska-punk outfit but have long since expanded beyond those confines, are one of those bands who seem to be perpetually on the road.
After a stint in Europe supporting Me First And The Gimme Gimmes around Europe in July, they played two sets at Rebellion Festival in Blackpool this month, followed by slots at another couple of smaller festivals.
A rearranged show in Nuneaton and this visit to Stockton are followed by September gigs with Terrorvision, an October date in Edinburgh with New Model Army, then a US stint in November.
Oh, and 13 September also sees the release of Below The Static, a six-song EP of acoustic reimaginings of songs from last year’s Above The Static album (reviewed here). There’s a short acoustic tour to promote that too.
To say they’ve had a busy few months is an understatement then, but what The Bar Stool Preachers do best is playing live, whether they’re in small venues or on big festival stages.
The Georgian Theatre is a 200-capacity venue in the Teesside town’s cultural quarter, and it has hosted performances by the likes of Arctic Monkeys, The Cribs and The Charlatans.
First-timers
It’s busy if not quite full tonight, but the crowd are well up for a visit by one of the UK punk scene’s best up and coming bands, who are playing in Stockton for the first time.
Proceedings are opened by a band the Preachers know well, Gimp Fist, a street-punk three-piece from just up the road in Bishop Auckland, and I’m surprised to find it’s their first time in Stockton too.
It’s less than six months since the bands played together in Newcastle (reviewed here), and I recognise a few familiar faces in the crowd from that gig and others (this is the fifth time I’ve seen Gimp Fist this year, and the fourth for the Preachers).
The Gimps hurtle through 14 songs in their 40 minutes on stage, starting with How Come?, the opening track of latest album Losing Streak (reviewed here). Seventeen, Screaming and Blind from the new record also make the cut, but as ever it’s the oldies which get the crowd moving.
By the closing run of Heart Full Of Pride, Top Dog, (Marching) On & On and Here I Stand the audience are well onside, but it’s the inclusion of seldom-played Battered & Bruised and Whatever Happened which stand out for me.
Time for our headliners then, and the Preachers hit the ground running with Call Me On The Way Home, the lead single from Above The Static, which has become their go-to opener. It’s easy to see why; it’s a big, bold singalong, and the crowd respond as one as frontman TJ McFaull invites them to join in.
He asks who’s seen them before, and it’s a fairly even split between old hands and newcomers. They like nothing better than new people to impress, and go about proving just why half the crowd are returning punters.
Tracks from Above The Static make up half of their hour-long set, and they also wheel out some older crowd-pleasers you’d expect; One Fool Down from debut album Blatant Propaganda, Choose My Friends from the follow-up Grazie Governo, and State Of Emergency from the lockdown EP Soundtrack To Your Apocalypse.
There’s a great cover of Suicide Girls by Cock Sparrer, the street-punk legends fronted by TJ’s dad Colin McFaull, and a rare outing for Above The Static track Never Gonna Happen, which I’m not sure I’ve heard live before.
TJ shows what a consummate frontman he’s become, teasing ‘Nuneaton were louder’ as he asks the crowd to sing the ‘Woah-oh-oh-oh-oh’ intro to All Turned Blue, and engaging with those at the front (there’s no barrier here) at every opportunity.
His five bandmates – with Ebonnie Greene from West Yorkshire band Brigantes deputising tonight for absent guitarist Ray Waters – look like they’re having a blast too, even if you can barely see Ebonnie and fellow six-stringer Tom Gibbs as they lurk in the shadows.
A thunderous Doorstep and heartfelt Flatlined from the last album pave the way for a huge singalong to the closing Bar Stool Preacher, and their job here is done. The place is buzzing as the lights come up, and they truly have been preaching to the newly converted. I think they’ll be back.
