The Sonics & Le Beat Bespoke Festival
Report by Trixie Malicious ...


“Some people like water
Some people like wine
But I like the taste…
…Of straight Strychnine”

I adore the Sonics. As a professional go-go dancer, there are certain songs I keep folded up in the ventricles of my heart so that when I need them they are immediately on-hand to keep my energy up and keep me plugged in. The Witch is definitely one of those songs; it is an undeniable energy inducing, re-juicing song with a fervent pulse.

The Sonics came out of the whole American 60’s North West Garage scene along with The Kingsmen, The Wailers, Paul Revere & the Raiders and more, and their first single The Witch was actually on The Wailer’s Etiquette Records label- with the B side, Keep-A-Knockin by Little Richard. However, when I looked them up on Wikipedia it was noted: “The Sonics’ sound is noticeably rougher, cruder, and more brutal than that of their musical peers”. It is true that they do seem that bit darker that deliciously bit dirtier than the rest of the Louie, Louie crowd (which would explain why I like their rendition of Louie, Louie the best). Also noted is a correlation between their fuzzy, harsher tones and Gibson’s first fuzzbox. However, I think they were responsible too for constructing that sound; their amps are intentionally overworked and I’ve read that they purposefully customized them by using an ice pick to tear holes. They played in the red not worried about the distortion it caused, like The Stooges who came after them and who seem influenced by them (The Stooge’s Raw Power is another of my favourite albums and it is entirely in the red); they chose distortion and volume over technical perfection. But the other thing that I think sets them apart from their scene as well is they have a little bit more grit, sleaze and even horror in their lyrics and themes. They sing about Psychos, monsters, witches, drinking strychnine for kicks, satan and madness, which makes me want to envision them drinking in a graveyard with Screamin’ Lord Sutch and The Cramps. The Sonics are described on history-of-rock.com as emitting “harrowing soul-screams”, which I think is perfect. Who doesn’t want to absorb and project harrowing soul-screams?

The Sonics reunited in November 2007 to do the Cavestomp garage rock festival in Brooklyn, and now we are gonna get them in London:

The Sonics in London
Friday March 21st 2008
PLUS EXTRA DATE: March 23rd with The Horrors opening for them.
at The Forum (Highgate Road, Kentish Town)


There is also an Official Sonics After Show Party that is free if you have tickets to the show happening at The Venue, 229 Great Portland Street. This is because of “Le Beat Bespoke” a 3 day festival organized by the New Untouchables. There will be varying ticket prices/packages for you to see The Sonics plus other international garage bands, Garage DJs, and also a vintage record and retro market (I’m looking forward to catching The Staggers and Screamin’ Lord Gazza among others, plus snagging some vinyl for my collection). Many of the bands are from Dirty Water Records, including The Stems (Australia), Muck & The Mires (Boston), Los Cretinos (Basque Country), Los Chicos (Madrid), The Branded (Sweden) and more.

All the details for Le Beat Bespoke Festival can be found at:

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And Le Beat Bespoke ticket hotline details are:

boxoffice@229thevenue.co.uk
Tel: 020 7323 7229

Yours truly with a glass of strychnine and a harrowing soul-scream,
xo Trixie Malicious