Penny Mob, Gig Review. District House, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

North London’s rich cultural landscape has never felt as though it has anything to hide, it stands in the shadow of two of football’s great football teams, it has the gentility running through its veins and like its neighbour to the south-east, the area around Whitechapel and the East End, it has the blood of expression oozing from every pore, sweat of young aspiration clambering to be noticed. Like Liverpool, it delivers with delicate but hard fought battle, music that has the muscle to wedge itself between you and a place of comfort; a comfort that has no right to be anywhere in sight but far too often gets involved in the day to day listening of the nation.

North London’s Penny Mob found their way through the subtle weaving motorways that link the length of the country and found themselves beside the other great rive, the banks of the Mersey and District House playing host to them for the evening and it was a set that not only gained attention but raised the ideals of forgotten heritage between the two areas.

For all of North London’s shared gentility, of up-coming artisan café’s and artistic endeavour, it has been neglected in many ways by Government, by the Westminster Village so close on its doorstep and like Liverpool, like its young, have found ways to engage with its surroundings and make the most of life without help from the edifice of once thought democracy.

Penny Mob are blistering, they have an air of destruction surrounding them, the hard fought battle recently scrapped and punched through may have left bruises, may have left a scar or two but they are un-bloodied and unbowed, they stand tall and ready to drive home their neo punk ethic home. Blistering, in an environment which was perhaps less beautifully decorated they would have no doubt torn strips and pressed home their dominance even further, but blistering they were and in the songs Immortal, 21st Century Kids and the punchy War On The Streets, Penny Mob got the attention they fully deserved.

This small window of opportunity, this gig by the Mersey was one in which to revel, Penny Mob is a new band to fight alongside and the sound they employ is electric and devastatingly good; a find that needs to come north to a welcoming shore again.

Ian D. Hall