Ming City Rockers – Review at the Peer Hat, Manchester, 20/02/23

Punk and pop punk in particular is bursting with feminism and feminine energy, pushing boundaries, and it is an exciting time for this music.

Liverpudlians Piss Kitti are a major part of this movement and whilst they are completely new to me I am thoroughly enjoying them. I am not alone either as all of the audience here are fully behind them dancing along in the confines of the Peer Hat’s basement. Singer Esme Davine and guitarist Dominic Price decide they are not to be constrained by the stage and perform one song from the floor and in Esme’s case a couple of songs showing they are at one with this enthusiastic audience. The band are on the rise too as a couple of days after this gig they signed to the Marshall Records Live Agency – congratulations to them and I will definitely make the effort to see them again.

https://pisskitti.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/pisskitti

More photos here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/49278457@N03/albums/72177720306254916

I’ve been following Ming City Rockers for some time now, having been mesmerised by their performance when they opened for the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion some years ago, a time when their previous album, Lemon, was out and had been produced by Steve Albini. Since then they’ve kept me on my toes with various line-up changes but finally, they have a new album out, Lime. They’ve seriously underestimated their popularity because it sold out before the tour started (they did offer me a freebie CD that had no cover and may have been water damaged but I forgot to pick it up).

The band are only on stage for 28 minutes but they power through a ton of power-pop-punk songs, which helps that some are less than 2 minutes long. Their most recent pop-punk anthem Jill Was An Anarchist is faster-paced with some frantic energy whereas Sell Me A Lemon is about the government and everyone is getting in the Ming City groove. Nancy, I’m Bitter gives us some classic punk stylings and Infectious is brief yet brutal at 1 minute 22 seconds, it’s almost metal and totally in our faces. It is almost as exhausting watching this as it must be playing it as the band is speeding along faster than a Japanese bullet train. There is no encore but that works, this is just BANG and the job is done.

https://www.youtube.com/@mingcityrockers/videos

https://mingcityrockers.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/MingCityRockers

Ming City Rockers are:
Clancey Jones – Vocals and Bass
Morley Adams – Guitar and vocals
Jack Scales – Drums