Anger Management
The Grit get a small but respectable crowd for the first band on the Lock Up stage on Saturday. As they take the stage you'd be forgiven for expecting a pure psychobilly outfit, they certainly look the part with quiffs and a rather swanky looking double bass but the Grit have more too them than that. They impress early on with some tight vocal harmonies, drafting in an additional guitarist and harmonica player for a couple of songs. Musically they come over like Rancid dancing with the Clash with a dose of the Stray Cats thrown in for good measure, the overall feeling is just of a tight good time, punk edged rock and roll band.
Little Man Kurt on double bass gives a good performance, he climbs on his instrument, twirls it, swings it around his head and just about anything else he can think of! The song structures are fairly simple and in places they're not hugely original but they do their thing with real conviction and get a suitably enthusiastic response from the crowd.
The set draws heavily from their debut album 'Shall We Dine' with 'Surrender', 'Misery' and 'Mayday' all getting an airing but the highlight of the set is the amusingly titled set closer 'I Came out the Womb an Angry Cunt'. They break it down in the middle and get the crowd to join in singing the chorus, with Little Man Kurt and guitarist Louis Ville taking the mic down to the front rows for a good dose of audience participation. It's all good fun although they do drag it out a bit too long but it ensures that they are remembered and judging from the number of people I see chatting to them later on it's a job well done. They're only one album in and they've demonstrated plenty of promise, with bands of a similar ilk such as The Living End making great strides they could just be in the right place at the right time to really go places.