Misfits

By Clare McCabe 

Artist:  Misfits

Date / Venue:  Saturday January 11th, Kings Arms Tavern, Auckland

Ah Misfits. Yes you really do have to see them live to fully grasp their greatness.

The current tour lineup features Mr Jerry Only, bass-player and singer - the only original band member I believe . The wonderful Dez Cadena (ex Black Flag) plays on guitar - great makeup my friend. And Mr Eric Arce on drums.

Jetlagged Jerry may have been (and happy to admit it), but that man can still play for a seriously long time at a seriously fast pace. And his JACKET. For three guys in their 50s, who knew they would still be so animated, enthusiastic.

Covering the support band department were the all-female Penny Dreadfuls - very loud and angry and the singer does enjoy a good screaming vocal. They were followed by the hardcore and aggressive Prowler, who are playing BDO on Friday.

And then on came Jerry, Dez and Eric, Jerry wearing a Misfits t-shirt (of course) under his great stage jacket which included a dracula collar and lots of spikes.

And away they went. Misfits songs are fast, short and played hard. So you get a load of songs in a short period of time (a la Ramones). A few faves of the evening for me were Scream, Attitude, She and Die, Die my Darling. Too many classics to list. Which was exactly what I expected from a Misfits show.

Punk/rockabilly/horror-punk - call it what you will. It deserves to be played loud and fast and the Kings Armsis the perfect place for such an evening.

My favorite part of the evening though was watching the crowd taking selfies of themselves with Jerry and Dez who climbed down from the stage and walked amongst it, thanking everyone personally for coming and totally enjoying being at one with the crowd.

Thanks for coming boys - don't leave it so long next time for a visit.