Backyard Babies at Islington Academy

Backyard Babies – Islington Academy – 8 February 2010

Words by Eric Cannon / Photo’s by Daniel Gray

With drums, amp heads and cabs all lit up with LED lights and red beacon lights flashing to the sleazy riffs of Backstabber the night gets underway in textbook Backyard Babies style. Nicke Borge commands the stage with his whiskey soaked voice. Dregen looks like he’s getting hists from fretboard, his eye’s drift back with every note like a seasoned drunk. Dysfunctional Professional and I Got Spades gets the crowd chanting early in the night and the promise of a long setlist ensures that everyone should get a fair dosage of their favourite BYB tracks, even Fill Up This Bad Machine and Electric Suzy from their 94’ album Diesel & Power.

As the night progresses and the setlist unfolds it’s evident that tonight is a stellar night, Peder Carlsson has one of the coolest styles I have seen in a long time and I know that it’s all about the actual music but you cant help be mesmerized by his technique. Drool from their latest self titled album is my favourite of the evening, it’s opening verse is just classic

I sprayed a picture of spiderman
Next to hitler and uncle-sam
when i do what i wanna do
i drool

and Nicke’s gravely voice matches the lyrics perfectly. The night moves on like a late night drinking session in the back of a Cadillac, they even do a soaring rendition of Babylon by 80’s rockers Faster Pussycat. Their biggest hit as far as I know is Minus Celsius and it definitely gets the crowd rocking but one thing that stood out as the perfect BYB moment was when Nicke Borg had a plastic cup or some other object thrown his way, to which he replied “You might throw things but I will still fuck your girlfriend” and this to me is the heart and soul of this band. They don’t give a shit if you don’t like them, they are here for one thing and one thing only, to have a bloody good time and twenty years on it’s still happening.

Setlist:

Backstabber
Made Me Madman
Devil-May-Care
Dysfunctional Professional
I Got Spades
Drool
Wireless Mind
Babylon (Faster Pussycat cover)
Highlights
Brand New Hate
Too Tough To Make Some Friends
Abandon
Degenerated
Fill Up This Bad Machine
Ghetto You
Electric Suzy
bombed
One Sound
Nomadic