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Gertrude - London, Amersham Arms, New Cross Friday 10th November 2000 If you weren't actually looking, you could swear that there's 2 different bands playing on the same stage. One is a gorgeously light jazz ensemble, all woodwind and cello and classy harmonies. The other is a vicious and discordant punk rock group. Yet together, they create a wonderfully deranged mutant orchestra: the perfect, seamless synthesis of pop and hardcore that is quietly, unknowingly, mad as a fish. On a bike. Their opening outburst of colourful anger tonight is an old favourite, a strangely onomatopoeic number called 'Knife Edge'. But each time, Gertrude confront and confound you with myriad new textures and contrasts, forever revealing another delightful cameo from clarinet or vocal intonation that refreshes the entire set. Witness 'The Dark Thoughts Of Your Own Worst Enemy', augmented by a great shouty chorus, or 'She Would Like To Be', illustrated with Iona's stream-of-consciousness monologue on media-perpetrated images of women. Even in the midst of this apparent chaos, though, there is an underlying stealth, a great sense of dynamics, which turns the entire set into, above all, superbly crafted songs. All-be-they played in 7/5 time signatures. After one song, possibly called 'Pig In Muck' and quite probably THE greatest song ever, someone in the audience says 'wow', and clearly means it. Because Gertrude just might be the angular and invigorating shape of punk to come... Steve

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