Say what you like about The Mighty Stef, but you’d be hard pressed to find a band with a better collection of guitar riffs. Then there’s mainman Stefan Murphy, a master of the gravelly growl and making teenage girls go weak at the knees. The energy and attitude’s all there, but if they’re to progress to the next level they’ll need a bit more variety in their songwriting.
Then Shame Academy rolled out, looking like they’ve lived every one of the last 30 years. Which, of course, they have in such celebrated Belfast outfits as Stalag 17, Rudi, The Outcasts and Sabrejets.
Perhaps in a bout of wishful thinking , their second song was the 'casts' ‘Teenage Rebel’. The trio's adolesence may be long gone, but they still perform with the vitality of old. Petesy Burns’s drums are perfectly menacing; Brian Young’s guitar licks make you pant like a dog; and Greg Cowan’s self-assured, fuck-you bass wraps the whole throbbing parcel up. You have to have the shit kicked out of you a few times to play that well.
Sure, the vocals were a bit rough, but Belfast’s punk all-stars still know how to deliver up a good time.