EATER @ THE 100 CLUB, LONDON

The North London punk band have reformed after a hiatus of almost twenty years (at first playing under the alias ‘Ant’), with founding member and vocalist Andy Blade having recruited a younger band in the form of Canada/Isle of Wight art glam rockers, Jo-Jo & The Teeth. Ahead of their forthcoming new album release, they performed their new single, ‘Ann’, re-worked and re-released since its original appearance on Eater’s debut album, with reeling guitar and cymbal lashes as Blade, in baseball cap and shades, leant out towards the crowd.

The band continued to play from their 1977 debut and only studio album, the simply entitled ‘The Album’, with covers of Alice Cooper’s ‘I’m Eighteen’ – renamed ‘Fifteen’ due to Eater’s young age at the time – and Lou Reed’s ‘Waiting For The Man’, with bellowing vocals from backing singer Jo-Jo. They then played their third single, ‘Lock It Up’ and the circular recently released B-side of ‘Ann’, ‘Point of View’; Blade’s comments to the audience as puerile, sarcastic and patronising as back in the day.

Eater performed their cover of T-Rex’s ‘Jeepstar’, with its superb double textured glam rock guitar. ‘My Business’, a slower track than the rest of the set, stood out with its combination of Tom-Toms and hurricane fretwork. They finished their criminally short 45-minute show (as printed on the setlist, “no encore because they are lame”) with their debut single, ‘Outside View’, the thunderous rhythm section of ‘Thinking of The USA’, and ‘No Brains’, the latter with original guitarist Brian Chevette (Haddock) joining the rest of the band onstage.

30/03/23: Eater @ The 100 Club, London.