I very nearly saw the first ever Pale Angels show, but it clashed with another band I really wanted to see at (Pre-)Fest, so I had to miss them. In the end, another 6 months would pass before I finally saw Pale Angels and became a fan, and that was only really by accident.
Pale Angels feature Mikey from The Ergs and Jamie from The Arteries. Being a big fan of The Arteries I was intrigued, but I'd never really listened to The Ergs and was aware that Mikey had a tendency for being in many bands at any one given point. Being shockingly apathetic, I simply never made any effort to check them out, despite hearing good things about their album, Primal Play (which, if I remember correctly, had come out just ahead of their first ever show at Fest). Anyway, one Friday evening in east London, Calvinball were playing one of their last ever shows along with a few other familiar bands, and Pale Angels got added to the bill. I was pleased to finally be forced into checking them out (plus, it turned out that by this point my friend Reza was playing drums for them, an arrangement that continues to this day).
I had no idea what to expect when they took the stage, but I certainly wasn't prepared to be taken back to early-90's grunge rock. It felt a bit like what it must have felt like in the dingy bars of Seattle 25 years earlier - unexpected walls of fuzz-heavy tunes. I was impressed. (I had the same feeling the first time I saw Hot Mass a few years later - another Arteries offshoot.)
At the end of the year, I finally picked up their album, along with two 7"s in a bundle from Specialist Subject Records. It was everything I was hoping for after seeing them - fuzzy and heavy. In the Sunset is possibly the highlight, although the 14-minute Bed Bugs is more exciting than you might otherwise expect from such a long song - it starts of slow but then builds to quite a pace before finding a very catchy chorus.
Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 9
Cost: £11.50 new
Bought: Specialist Subject Records
When: 05/12/14
Colour: Blue marble
Etching: Side A: "Put the kettle on" Side B: "Sexy willy riff"
mp3s: Download code
