Road trips to Brighton are always going to be good fun and with so many venues to choose from it was off to the Green Door Store this evening – which tucked away under the train arches is a proper little dive, but I mean that in a good way as I love the venue and the run down feel adds to the charm of the place and was fitting for tonight’s show.
Opening up was Paul “Pog” Stapleton and the crowd was fairly sparse at this point with the majority sticking to the other side of the curtain and remaining in the bar area, but Pog didn’t seem to mind and treated us to a number of tunes including the re-writing of the original Star Wars trilogy into two minutes and despite the small crowd it was well received.
Those that had been filling up in the bar soon made it towards the stage area for Mad Dog Collective, a self-proclaimed “Pikey Punk Ska Band” that may not necessarily be the greatest musically but they do have a certain energy about them and everyone was soon up for their Saturday night out.
Mad Dog’s Frontman Jamie Dog and his co-conspirator Rob da Rub constantly bounce off each other with their friendly banter sometimes being slightly controversial and as with many bands of late make sure to slate Margaret Thatcher’s legacy at the earliest opportunity, which goes down well with the audience along with insisting that we all bark along with various dog noises once given the nod.
Headliners Radical Dance Faction have had a strong underground following since the late eighties often taking a political stance against the system and although the years have seen a number of members pass through the ranks Chris Bowsher has remained the bands constant frontman.
The songs focus around the lyrical content and their spoken word delivery, with drummer Steve Cruikshank watching Chris Bowsher’s every move as he feeds off the singer at the front of the stage rather playing along with the deep bass lines provided by the bands newest member.
Many a tune feature Karen Ricketts on backing vocals which compliment Bowsher really well, especially during the likes of “Babylon is Burning” complete with its dub roots and echoing effects.
There’s nothing flash about RDF and although they’re quite different to those around them, they’re very much what you see is what you get and with there being no guitarist on stage tonight the performance was nice and raw in keeping with this great little venue and a good night was had by all.
