LIVE REVIEW: The Chats, Chubby and the Gang, Dennis Cometti, Leeds Stylus, 27/03/2022
Photo Credit: Luke Henery
It certainly wasn’t your average Sunday night in Leeds. From doors to the very end, Leeds had turned out in a sold-out crowd at the Stylus to experience some of the best modern day punk music there is.
Openers Dennis Cometti certainly looked the part with their matching jerseys. Their brand of traditionally short punk songs fit in perfectly with the crowd as small mosh pits begin to form. They encouraged people to finish their pints at next door’s Old Bar and get up and go to the venue, and we don’t think many of them would have regretted it. For the twenty minutes or so they were on stage they set the tone for what was to be lively night. 8/10
UK hardcore band Chubby and the Gang were chief support, the band certainly brought the energy, as well as the crowd, as the floor was pretty much full at this point. Charlie Manning-Walker (aka Chubby) was a pretty active front man and wouldn’t stop moving around the stage, whilst making some bold claims about his surroundings on the microphone to a mixed reaction. The crowd ate up the set for the vast majority of the gig, however some of the crowd seemed to not take to Chubby as much as others, as a few boos could be heard. Although, we would say they performed well and put on a pretty solid punk show that really got the first drips of sweat going. 8/10
Now onto the main event, the might Ozzy punk band The Chats graced the Stylus and brought the house down. There wasn’t a single person on the floor who wasn’t moving. It was banger after banger. You don’t get many gigs like this in the 21st century. It was a proper throwback. Lead singer Eamon Sandwith’s adamance of addressing the crowd as “cunts” was pretty hilariously Australian. It’s hard to pick out many songs that were particularly brilliant live as the band managed to fit some twenty-five songs in what was barely an hour’s set that went by in a flash. Some particular highlights were fan favourites such as Smoko, Identity Theft, and Pub Feed which embraced the slightly more singalong side of the band’s category. The Chats also chose to play some unreleased material, which, like the rest of the band’s discography consisted of two-minute songs about pretty much anything. If we were to summarise the gig in a sentence, it would be Sandwith’s introducing of a new song called CCTV in his thick deep Australian accent of “this one’s about those little cameras that are all around you” before bursting into ninety or so seconds of fast-paced high quality punk music, and then before you know it, they are onto the next one. On the floor, you were getting pushed around from corner to corner in seconds, it was how the best punk gigs are meant to be. The stage presence of the band was perfect for the gig as they made short songs even shorter just by the sheer pace they were playing at, which of course translated very well in the pit. Strangely, arguably the only negative was when the band introduced Chubby back onto the stage who was greeted by a few boos, in which he responded the only way he knows how – middle fingers and wanking gestures. It was a bit of a strange two minutes as some of the booing did feel a bit unjustified. As punk gigs go, I’m really not sure what else the band could do to make it any better, it was a hot and sweaty hour, but you’d do it again in a heartbeat. 10/10
Written by: Joe Loughran
