Live Review: Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds

It's kind of hard to join the thematic dots between the uniquely French elegance of Degas' canvases and the good old-fashioned rock'n'roll Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds will unleash tonight. Amusingly, Degas in his later years painted a number of pictures of women 'at toilette', which are essentially nudes in bathrooms striking somewhat undignified and awkward poses. 

While we exit the exhibition through the bookshop, Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds launch into a surf-rock instrumental that has the kind of twang that brings to mind his work with The Cramps. Playing tunes off Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds' albums, the outfit slide into schlocky psychobilly before settling into garage that's just a little punk in its attitude. The mix is rough and a little raw. The Pink Monkey Birds play it tight and fast. Kid Congo is as kookily eccentric as he is charismatic. There is a certain simplicity to this music, but the formula has been calculated to deal maximum damage. The outfit's thunderous assault on the eardrums just feels good. There are a lot of rock'n'roll grandpas in the crowd who understandably lose their minds when covers She's Like Heroin To Me and Sex Beat by The Gun Club are rolled out. Spencer P Jones, who played with The Gun Club on an Australian tour in the '80s, joins them for a tune. Once a Bad Seed, Kid Congo has another ex-Bad Seed, Mick Harvey, join him to deliver a banging take on The Gun Club's Thunderhead. An influential player in punk circles, Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds deal out a delightfully good time.