The DJ has been spinning deep cuts of jazz-rock for a half an hour to head nodding and foot tapping approval at Corsica before the three Japanese that form Xaviers take to the stage. After a tentative few minutes the warm thwack of bass drum and synthesiser fills the room and Xaviers thrum into life. There’s drum monstering aplenty amid the guitar exorcisms of Yuki Tsujii and blasts of cow bell from Kenichi Iwasa that come together to cocoon the room with noise. It’s too visceral a creation to be dismissed as muso; such is the force of the trio’s work. Your mum might not like it (although who am I to say what your mum likes?) but Xaviers’ racket seems to be just the ticket for tonight’s crowd such is the number of bodies crammed together up front.
Endless Boogie emerge from Corsica’s narrow corridors just before 10 o’clock. They are appropriately named, everyone knows that, much like Death or Throbbing Gristle - you know what to expect from their moniker. The vibe at their concerts is extremely laid back and jovial too, verging on the 'few mates with a crate of booze in a garage' scenario. Kind of how I imagine what those Fillmore gigs that the Allman Brothers Band played in 1970 were like. Not because Endless Boogie sound very much like the Allmans - it's just the feeling, man.
Anyway, back to south east London in 2013 and Endless Boogie's songs are loooong, as the set list of five songs in over 90 minutes will attest, but rarely demanding - you can tune in and out as you please - but that doesn't mean they lack vitality. They open with ‘The Savagist’, all greasy throb from the band and frontman Top Dollar bleating about the “the Devil in my bed”.
After bemoaning Corsica’s labyrinthine structure (“I keep going for a smoke and ending up at the toilet and going for a piss where everyone’s smoking. I can do either in any room at home”) the American foursome dial up ‘Empty Eye’ from Full House Head with Top Dollar’s narcotic lead geetar anchored by his bandmates dirty chug. The ragged bar room jam of ‘Smoking Figs in the Yard’ makes you think there should be a chicken wire fence separating us from our grizzled entertainers except that this crowd is too frazzled in their enjoyment to be throwing bottles in appreciation. The room may thin out prior to Endless Boogie’s encore but there are grins to be seen in all directions.
Like many a jam band Endless Boogie have trad rock stylings which they tend not to radically veer from; however, unlike each new generation of haircut retro chancers this is actually their music. The ages of Top Dollar and fellow guitar player The Guv’nor don’t lie - it is us who are the chancers. Top Dollar, in particular, has the gnarled look of a rock and roll Ent but they give it stacks tonight like AC/DC if they’d swapped booze for reefer and who could ask for more than that?
