Marquee, London
23rd December 1987

Sounds
9th January 1988
by Paul Elliot

RED HOT RHYTHM AND BRUISES

WATCHING THE brawny and superanimated Cro-Mags shake the very breath from a London crowd just recently, provided another stark reminder of the disproportionate number of truly powerful American rock 'n' roll bands to British ones. From Hüsker Dü to Megadeth, the UK has few, if any, answers.

So thank heaven for these Screaming Blue Messiahs, the single most gripping and penetrating live group I've seen in ages, Kreator included. And they were possibly the loudest too.

Not that they're without subtlety or colour. This giant noise isn't walled in by any one style, and equally, it's not prey to its own intensity. The Messiahs move freely from the dance wipe-out of 'All Shook Down' to a wry good-time hoedown groove like 'Jesus Chrysler Drives A Dodge' and on to the insistent belly-crawl of 'Bikini Red', applying the same brutal tension to each.

A mass of old styles and flavours are sucked up whole to be made the Messiahs' own, strengthening, deepening and widening their head-on rock sound. Elements of their music you'll have heard some place before, but never in so livid, or so twisted a form.

The guitar is alive in Bill Carter's hands and he wrenches every note from it, every peel of feedback and blasting open chord. Carter is very much the master of the group, its focal point and power source.

He shudders across the stage, bald head jerking, twitching. His eyes frequently roll back, seemingly sightless as his knuckles whiten around the neck of the guitar, yet he's always in full control.

The band are just right as a three-piece. No frills, simply directness and energy fed through Carter's idiosyncratic songs.

The Messiahs are that rare thing, a rock band, British at that, who make a power trio set-up and electric guitars sound fresh, raw and unpredictable. Their records, however strong, are barely half the story.

Live, The Screaming Blue Messiahs cut through rock's flab and excess to touch the nerve.