LIVE REVIEW: Eat Fast, Mouses, Shy-Talk @ The Cluny, Newcastle (31.10.17)

Image: Eat Fast

While a fair proportion of the crowd have received the memo to bring their costumes along for tonight’s Halloween special, the arch absurdists of Shy-Talk need no such reminding. Dressed in every conceivable shade of mustard (and a couple of unconceivable ones to boot), the new six-piece launch into a short, sharp set of joyously ridiculous art-punk – a set-list featuring songs called Isotonic Youth and Dark Crisps probably tells you what you need to know.

Raising the ante further are the reliably energetic Mouses – tonight’s costumes: Wednesday and Pugsley Addams – who blast through a succession of manic, Elephant 6-esque fuzz-pop singalongs. Eventually deciding that the stage isn’t enough, Steven Bardgett prowls the banisters and floor before eventually bringing the set to a close with a triumphantly pointless mid-crowd cymbal jump kick. Well, why not.

Appearing tonight at a priest, two fifties Hollywood starlets (…and Kingy on the drums), Eat Fast’s big Cluny headline show might be the prelude to a full UK tour, but this set already sounds meticulously tested and perfected. Launching into a clutch of material from this year’s Immortal Kombat EP like the jaundiced bounce of Scrambled Egg and Flummox, alongside some new material from a  forthcoming third EP and established favourites like Public Display of Affection and Byker Drone, their scabrous, smart but perversely catchy drone pop continues to delight.