Oxford Street, it isn’t all banging top 40 dance anthems and cheesy techno. There are still a handful of venues fighting the fight against local residents hell-bent on banning live music. Spectrum is one of those venues, and A Death In The Family, Lungs and The Outsiders gave the locals some more reasons to complain.

Local boys Hira Hira looked after the opening duties. Before the band that had travelled the furthest to be there, New Zealand’s, The Outsiders took to the Spectrum’s darkened stage. The Outsiders have been gathering a lot of support recently back in their homeland, support which has seen them win a place on the Auckland leg of the No Sleep Till… tour. They play a blend of punk and hard-rock, think Against Me and Propaghandi with shades of Dropkick Murphy’s and you’re on the right track.

They opened their set with The Other Half and followed it up with one of their strongest tracks Blue Skies. Through it’s ‘all-in singing’ hook and stomping melody, this song is a perfect call to arms for fans to sing along with the band. The other standouts of the set included This House ain’t a home, Beginning of the end and Bonships & Friendfires. Before bringing their set to an epic finish, playing the title track to their latest album The Words Will Write Themselves, out now. If they keep putting in performances like this one, I’m sure a lot more people will know the words when they next make it back to our shores.

It was then over to a band who had not long finished a tour of New Zealand themselves. I had been told to check out Lungs before, and now after seeing them live I wish I had heeded that advice far sooner.
Opening with Avalanche the band instantly showed each member posses’ musical ability to be reckoned with.

Ghosts, Tens and then Phineas were followed by Slack. Their set is frantic and frenetic, yet it never just melts into one big wall of noise. At all times there is a clear sounding point and direction to their tunes, which is all too often easily lost under the volumes at which these types of bands play.

The guitar riff in (what I think was called) For Dad is a full-on rapid-fire assault, it’s the sound of Motorhead and Anthrax beating the shit out of each other, and it sounds great. Seesawed, Machinations, Forever Eighty-Four and Legs round out what has been an almighty set from the trio.

Everyone had gathered due to A Death In The Family. But instead of scrapping over who’s getting Grandma’s jewellery, it was time to party.
Sink we swim, Bottom Of The Lake and Gasping, in that order were the first three tracks, I’m assuming that the ‘drowning-theme’ was intentional? Either way the band were in good voice.

Shackled was followed by Lion Hearted. A Death In The Family use a similar set-up to that of the Outsiders earlier in the night. Dual guitars plus the bassist out-front, rather than him being hidden behind the closest Marshall stack. Everyone out-front means everyone sings, which is very effective in adding extra dimensions to the bands, both vocally and visually.

Familiar Strangers brings the express tempo down just a little, before the band get into From Nothing To Nowhere. A balls-to-the-wall version of the next track Sinking Slowly was the song of the set for me. Before the rough and tumble of Vodka and Balconies and Erasing The Maps finished the set.

For a four piece these guys make one hell of a racket, it’s chaotic at times but never messy. To put it simply, If you like your music loud and dirty you will like A Death In The Family. It’s encouraging to see that in spite of the general public’s ridiculous noise complaints and all-round bullying to get these venues to stop hosting live music, that there are still lots of great bands coming through. As long as we can keep places for them to play open, you never know where some of these guys may end up.