Misfits, Bristol Motion, review: Pioneering punk veterans deliver career-spanning performance

The band's songs offer furious velocity and singalong choruses

Oliver Hurley
Wednesday 05 August 2015 12:41 BST
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The influence of the American horror-punk band Misfits is pervasive
The influence of the American horror-punk band Misfits is pervasive

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For many people, Misfits – much like the Ramones and Motörhead – are better known for their T-shirts than their music. While you may recognise their distinctive skull logo, you'd probably be hard pressed to name any of their songs.

Yet the influence of the American horror-punk band, who formed in New Jersey in 1977, is pervasive. They've been covered by such rock behemoths as Guns N' Roses and Metallica and, with their songs' furious velocity and singalong choruses, they inadvertently created the template for a brace of skate-punk groups.

Tonight's show consists of a frenzied run-through of their seminal album Static Age, followed by another 20-plus songs spanning their subsequent career arc, from their pioneering hardcore sound to the weaker, comic-book metal of their more recent releases.

Bassist and latter-day vocalist Jerry Only – resplendent in heavy eye make-up, spiked leather jerkin and trademark Eddie Munster-style 'devilock' haircut – remains the, erm, only link in the present line-up to the band's heyday. But the lack of original members, and Only's sometimes shaky vocals, are compensated for by the trio's ability to faultlessly rattle through over 35 years' worth of melodic-yet-macabre punk at warp speed.

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