BOSS HOG
London Astoria 2 Mon 17th April 2000

OK, so this is one of the worst venues in London, and support band the Tremelo Beergut - a Scandinavian surf guitar band would you believe! - are attempting to win the crowd over with covers of 'The Model' and 'Death Valley 69'. This does not bode well.
Despite this - and the lousy venue starting and finishing early so that they can re-open as a club - Boss Hog do save the day. Nowadays they sound far removed from the Amphetamine Reptile days, with keyboards particularly forward in the mix, and the strong influence of 'Whiteout' producers Jim Thirlwell (Foetus) and Tore Johanssen (Cardigans) is obvious. In fact they concentrate mainly on the last two albums ('Boss Hog' and 'Whiteout') and for the opening 15 minutes they are superb.
The pace only lets up a little as they work in funkier tunes like 'Jaguar' but they cram a lot in to their short set. Jon Spencer takes a very supporting role as the show is dominated by his wife Christina. She comes across as a kindred spirit to Royal Trux's Jennifer but a much more animated one! In fact, in order to play down the JSBX connections - and there are a lot of people here in Blues Explosion shirts - Christina lets the drummer (I'm sorry I can't remember her name) take lead vocals on the encore while Mr Spencer plays drums. Overall Boss Hog fell a little flat after their fantastic opening, but it was still a fine gig. (7/10)