The Nightingales (UK) played one of the best sets of Part Time Punks Festival. It was dark and hopeless, but oh so so charismatic and entertaining — the kind of music that could convince you to end your life or save it, depending on the day. Singer Robert Lloyd spent half the set stalking on the lip of the stage, sizing-up members of the crowd like he was looking for someone to shiv later on.
Another re-formed post-punk band from the early 80’s, The Nightingales’ current incarnation, only two original members amongst a strange assemblage of people, seemed to draw extra life from its younger blood. Guitarist Christine Edwards was a revelation, treating her guitar as though it was a piece of food that she was chopping into smaller bits for child consumption. The drumming was sicker than a U.S. civil war infirmary.
Some of the best rock performances are performed by bands so uncompromising in their work as to almost be contemptuous to their audience. Pain with your pleasure, chains with your feathers.”