WolfLaw, The Beautiful Sleazy, The Smoking Hearts, Faith'n'Fury, Trash Monkey.

Lev 2 Esquires Bedford. 30th May 2009.

Phew! Today has been an absolute scorcher. Summer has arrived early. With a beer garden, a takeaway, to be followed by the television final of Britain's Got Talent, it would be natural to think that the turnout tonight would be a touch disappointing. Thankfully it appears that there are still enough people out there with a penchant for swaggering leather clad rockers.

Despite being somewhat underwhelmed by TRASH MONKEY on their last Esquires visit, they go some way to changing my opinion tonight with an altogether more cohesive set. Their powerhouse never relented in its quest for explosive satisfaction. Unfortunately, as is the way with opening the show, most of the punters did not see the set as they are still downstairs in the bar. Consequently they miss the surprise package of the evening. A song that sounds like "Going back to Towchester" is blisteringly taut. To be fair, the rest of the set has few failings, so it's good that Trash Monkey set the record straight.

London trio FAITH'N'FURY had been advertised as "heavy riffing grunge rockers". However, I heard very little of that on their appearance tonight. Tepid and uninspiring, they took some time to kick start their set. The high spot was a song that took it's influence from MC5's "Kick out the Jams". There just seemed to be too much of a faked attitude about the other songs on offer which had little appeal to this reviewer.

On what was becoming a rather tiresome and one dimensional evening, a touch of the bizarre was introduced. For some obscure, or perhaps 'arty' reason, Shefford's "finest and furious punk'n'roll" exponents THE SMOKING HEARTS decided to play their entire set in darkness, except for drummer Flow who's set up on stage. The rest of the band pitch up their stances on the wooden mosh pit. Thus they are out of range as far as the lights go. With nothing to see, the stunned audience were exposed to a spectacular wall of hardcore sounds.

Thankfully there is no pretentiousness about THE BEAUTIFUL SLEAZY who introduce a modicum of craft and guile in to their set. A fusion of rock and blues with an attitude to match. Their 'beanpole' of a frontman makes all the right moves. In expensive boots and a dapper silk scarf he's central to the band. "Crave your Mind" is almost a singalong. "Ain't you lucky people!" yells this cocksure vocalist. Some newer material is also thrown in with such an assured manner. A triumphant return.

Even at my rather advanced years, while there are still local youngsters like WOLF LAW around, my musical flame will still keep burning. High octane punk'n'roll delivered with a healthy dose of cheeky arrogance. However, that's not to say that the boys were on totally top form tonight. It would be fair to say that this was due to the fact that they unleashed three new songs on an unsuspecting crowd. The best of these has to be "C**t Puncher". (If you dare, ask guitarist Roy what it's really called - he wrote it!) The two other unfamiliar tunes were "Dangerous Times" and "Mr Yesterday", both of which I felt received a mixed reaction. The carefully arranged intro "Overself" also deserves mention. The absence of "Crucified" in a headling show is perhaps very brave or just plain stupid? A magnificent pumped up "Hardwired and Hellbent" is superb. I feel that at the moment it is the cornerstone of Wolf Law's live show. It contains tons of aggression which wasn't always evident tonight and is, without doubt, the lifeblood of this young band.