Gun – O2 Islington Academy

• 27th Nov 2009

Where have Gun been? 20 years and with a highlight album in the 90s with Swagger which also played house to a great cover of Cameo’s “Word Up” this band very quickly fell into shadows and an eventual hiatus.

The break came to an end last year and, well the answer to where they have been seems irrelevant as they are here now to entertain a modest crowd Islington’s O2 Academy. Quickly vanquishing all memory of the support act whose name may as well have been “In it for the Pussy,” Gun rock right on with some of their more familiar numbers – again from the “Swagger” album. They then introduce us to some new material which isn’t up to the same standard, but is very much in a similar spirit. There is a track though called “Pop Killer” which is probably trying too hard to be a single, and in its chorus pattern just makes you think of electro pop “Pop Pop Pop, Pop Music.”

But overall the band can play and perform very well. It’s a shame that the sound level and venue isn’t up to their standard. As they are more of the “Thunder” meets “ACDC” variety of music the songs can be quite anthem-esque (which is probably where “Word Up” did them no justice in the 90’s as it is a world away from a lot of their other material. But the sound level here is actually quite painful on the ears and the levels are mixed. But fault is by no means the bands. The sound guy opposite must have noticed how loud “Too Loud” is for such a small venue, but neglected to do anything about it.

Still… there are other venues that are more befitting of the power of the band. Let’s hope they can get a few in as they promote their new material.