My first proper post thought I should be about something I am passionate about, so I thought music. More specifically about Dustin’s Bar Mitzvah, interesting name and a more interesting band. To give you a brief overview if you have never heard of Dustin’s they are a bunch of lads from West London (except for Baco, who is from Middlesborough), they write catchy punk pop tunes and they have an abundance of confidence. Amongst their celebrity fans are included Alan McGee and Steve Lamacq. Apparently Johnny Borrell hates them for an incident involving his then girlfriend, you can’t ask for much more recommendation than that.
I’ve been following this lot for about a year, I should be honest and say the only reason I had heard of them is that a friend of mine is their plugger (he also grew up with Baco) and last December he wore me down and said I should check them out. As time past I noticed that Dustin’s were playing at the Pleasure Unit in Bethnal Green, I emailed a few friends and headed down. To be perfectly frank the performance wasn’t the best gig I had ever seen, the sound was poor, Dave’s (the lead singer) vocals were barely comprehensible, the lads had a mini slanging match with a friend of mine (which was quite amusing as she was giving as good as she got), the only song that really stood out was “Get your mood on”. The support bands were probably more memorable but in saying that I couldn’t tell you anything about either of them. Not a great start but as I was leaving my friend the plugger said check this out, giving me a single (Lucy/Jimmy White) and also a Sun Christmas Songs CD. Well to be honest I was quite put out, it was February, what was he thinking, but then he explained it was some more Dustin’s stuff disguised as a Sun Christmas Songs and I should check it out.
We headed back but in the car I decided to give it a go and the short CD that we listened to (10 tracks) actually sounded good and the more I listened to it the more I learned the words, we listened to it all the way back to Woking. I was meant to have the CD for a week, I ended up keeping it for a couple of months, much to the owner’s distress. I spent the subsequent months developing my interest in Dustin’s and finding out more about them. I knew that their album (Dial “M” for Mitzvah) had been released in Japan so when I bought the T-Shirt I thought I’d ask the person on the other end of the email what the situation was with a UK release. Next year I was told with a single to be released in December (which I believe is “To the Ramones”/”Goldhawk Road”). A few days later I received a something wrapped in a yellow plastic bag (from an off license in West London), on opening it I discovered the Dustin’s T-shirt and they had thrown in a copy of the CD. I was chuffed, I listened to the CD in my slightly inebriated state and it was good but required further investigation. The further investigation had paid off, this was great, track four was a part witty/part angry attack on Nick Griffin (the leader of the BNP), this provided more evidence that I needed another Dustin’s fix.
At this point it had been a few months since I had seen Dustin’s originally, I had spent a lot of time research them, learning their songs even having some banter with their manager via email. It was time to see them again. They were playing at the Cartoon Club in Croydon. I was quite anxious when we pulled up across the road from the venue, it was surrounded by 14 - 18 year olds, the combined age of the two of us was 61 and the last performance was not like that of my best gig ever (easily The Beta Band, London Astoria, January 2000), nowhere even close. I had a lot pinned on this gig, I had been street teaming for Dustin’s in my own way for the past eight months, this was going to be my payback.
We turned up to a friendly chap on the door and great bar staff, this was looking good, my journey to a Dustin’s Nirvana had got off to the right start. We were got our drinks and parked on the garden benches (inside the venue, where else?). Although I was meant to be in the Cartoon Club in Croydon, it felt I was in the Kings in Seven Kings, the Island in Ilford or The Standard in Walthamstow or any number of the nefarious indie venues I had frequented when I was their age, I started feeling more comfortable about my agedness, I was coming home. The support acts consisted of members of the audience taking turns to play, one of the support acts even covered “Get your mood on”, I saw the Dustin’s boys clapping and nodding approvingly, although I wasn’t so keen on this cover mainly because it was awful. The time had come, I saw the boys getting ready to get on stage, I got up, I felt that we (that is Dustin’s and I) needed to be close to each other for this. It was all 61 years of us two surrounded submerged in a sea of youth. The boy’s kicked off their set they sounded so much tighter than last time, their musical talents and tightness had grown in the subsequent months but as I listened on Dave’s vocals were consistent with the performance of our last meeting. He mentioned something about “lines in the toilet” and I think he had been on the pop, he was living the rock star dream but my romantic notion of Dustin’s nirvana was cruelly whipped away from me, the scary looking barmaid (middle aged rock firebrand) even pointed out the lads’ unprofessionalism, we were beyond that point. I even tried to sing along (I had worked so hard to learn the lyrics so of course I was going to use them) to make it work all I got these youngster pointing and laughing at me, the old man who was digging on their scene, I was dejected, I had been robbed of this moment. I later spoke to Pete, the Dustin’s manager, and said they had been much tighter than last time, he seemed happy. I wasn’t lying but I was too hurt to talk about it, it was still too fresh in my mind.
I had bought plenty of other CDs in the mean time, the Test-Icicles being the main one but I had also starting delving into stuff that I hadn’t listened to for a while, Dead Prez, Four Tet, GZA, Bert Jansch and James Lavelle for a start. I didn’t need Dustin’s and I didn’t need punk pop, I was my own man. I got a call from a friend asking if I wanted to meet up for a drink, I said yes why not. I knew Dustin’s were on the agenda but I wasn’t spending too much time thinking about. In my eyes this was going to be a big gig for them, playing Alan McGee’s ‘Now We’re Off To Rehab’ in Islington, in front of a crowd of in the know musos, I foresaw a disaster.
There was crowd there and Dustin’s were on, kicking off with To the Ramones. They sounded tight, like last time but Dave’s vocals were astounding, he was on the ball and working the crowd a treat. I sang along and there were few of those insolent scamps but no one even registered my heartfelt bleatings. There was a bit of fisticuffs but that soon evaporated and Dave even a caring side by saying how horrible it was that people were fighting and over all an amazing performance. I bumped into Baco in the toilet who said he had seen Steve Lamacq in moshing, a phenomenal feat considering Steve’s age. The cruel irony was that they were only given a 30 minute set, way too short but I loved every minute of it.
I would thoroughly recommend you check them out, Steve Lamacq says they’ll be your new favourite band and Alan McGee loves them and who I am to argue with musos of that calibre, in fact, I whole hearterdly agree.
The Dustin’s boys have won my heart back and I expect 2006 to be their year.