Stinking Lizaveta @ Henry's Cellar Bar

When Assembly Direct took their jazz concerts out of Henry's Cellar (reported in Skinny Issue 2), it looked like the small venue was in trouble. But after a spectacular mid-refurb wasteland gig with Justice Yeldham playing sheets of glass with his face, the future of Henry's is looking noisy and as underground as its location. For tonights show, support came from IX, whose black metal drenched doom drone left a man crying in the toilets. Billed as 'doom jazz', Stinking Lizaveta are going to be held closer to the hearts of hard rockers than beard stroking jazz cats. They combine stoner groove riffs with ridiculously tight stop-on-a-dime-then-turn-it-all-around dynamics more akin to modern so-called mathcore bands. Professor Bumstyles rips seven shades of sludge out of his guitar, even howling into his pickups. But for all their 'out thereness', this is essentially good ol' fashioned rock'n'roll - despite the upright bass - loud, hairy, heavy and reeking of booze. February sees Henry's host several free rock/jazz/experimental gigs - including the potentially explosive spectacle of Sunburned Hand of the Man's multi-limbed folk freak out - that will make a visit to the new Henry's Cellar Bar an exhilarating experience.