Crime and The City Solution at Moth Club, Hackney, London, 24th November 2023 – Well what can be said about that one? It was damn good, let’s nail that in place right from the start, despite the usual not so good Moth Club sound and an annoying curfew that had the band off stage with barely an hour played, them clearly wanting to do more and with it not even being ten o’clock on a Friday night! Surely someone should have worked this out and scheduled them to start earlier? If I wasn’t on the freeloader press list I’d be well pissed off, as it is you’re not getting any of my ‘ard earned beer money Moth Club, I’m off to Helgi’s where the DJ is probably playing Angel Witch and Mythra records way into the night. The Moth Club is a tacky dive, it is kind of good tacky, actually we’ve got four decent music venues on Mare Street right now, three of them probably better than the Moth Club where you half expect them to still be serving Double Diamond and there to still be ashtrays overflowing. Four decent music venues on one street is fine by us seeing as the Organ bunker is also found on the self same venue-rich Hackney street, I like venues that are but a short walk away. Cut the crap I hear you cry, what about the band? What about the damn gig!

Well shortness of set and not the greatest sound ever aside – and that voice of his and that band do really deserve a good sound – all that aside, this was a damn fine gig. Second night of a European tour that’s going to stretch well into December, you can kind of tell they’re just getting in to the art of a gig, it takes them a little time to really gel,  they sound good from the off and All Must Be Love but it is with I Have The Gun where things really come together and the magic starts to happen. The upfront shoulder to shoulder combination of original frontman and one constant stretching way back the Australian late 70’s with  and violin player/frontwoman (and really strong presence) Bronwyn Adams works really well, there’s a chemistry here, things are flowing, the new line up is a more than healthy one. The new material is working well, the material from the recently released The Killer album, an album that sounds as good as anything they’ve done in their various formations if you ask these ears, There’s a soul to the new material, a heart, River of God is a thing of beauty tonight, that start to Brave Hearted Woman adds a dimension to the evening, set closer Peace In My Time is a powerful if way too soon end to an excellent set, people are shouting for more familiar material, Six Bells Chime and such but Peace is a fine fine end even if the performance needed another twenty minutes at least. 

Crime and The City Solution are sounding strong, the current line up clearly works well, I’d love to hear them towards the end of this tour they’re just starting on, love to hear them when they’re a little more gig fit. The Killer is a fine fine album, their seventh studio album, their first in something like ten years, the first from the new Berlin-based line-up. The Killer is a lean focused seven-track set of lush inviting songs, a warm album that comfortably sits as one of the band’s best. Both the new album and the show tonight are a joy, there’s a depth to the new songs, a velvety warmth, songs that almost hug you at times, Hurt You Hurt Me is beautiful, River of God is something special that’s going to need time to properly unpack it, love that start to Brave Hearted Woman that follows it, you get the idea, from the way they introduced Peace in My Time tonight that it is something just a little extra … Things are sounding good for Simon Bonney and his current gang, damn fine gig, damn fine new album…  (sw)            

“the killer was recorded in Berlin by the second incarnation of the band to be based in the German capital. Core members Simon Bonney and Bronwyn Adams were joined by Frederic Lyenn (Piano, Bass, Synth), Donald Baldie (Guitar), Georgio Valentino (Synth, Guitar), Chris Hughes (Drums, Percussion) and Joshua Murphy (Piano, Guitar), and for the first time they worked with a producer, the legendary Martin J. Fiedler, who also added Synth and Mellotron to the album”.