I found myself in Bristol on a cold, March evening, why was I here? now that Russia has invaded the Ukraine and COVID is apparently no longer an issue, I have started to return to the office for my day job and it just so happened that my office days were Monday and Tuesday. What to do...... Well, I walked from the office to the hotel, dumped my bags and checked on the map to see where I was, I spotted a branch of 'Honest Burger', headed there for some food and as I was finishing up, I checked to see if there were any live gigs happening in the city. Much to my surprise, The Lanes had 2 bands on, Slug Puppie and Lazy Queen, I'd never heard of either of them so I thought I'd chance my arm and check them out.

I had a quick listen to Lazy Queen on the way to the venue, I liked what I heard and was a little bit excited for the live show. I arrived early, 45 mins early to be precise, having just eaten, I didn’t fancy a beer so I chatted to Lazy Queen's tour manager and she agreed that I could chat to the band ahead of their set. I was unprepared, I knew nothing about the band and didn’t want to appear unprofessional so I dashed back to the hotel, flipped open my laptop and had a quick dig around the socials in order to create a bunch of questions for them. Whilst I was there, I had a look at Slug Puppie as well and wrote a few down for them should I have the time to chat to them afterwards. Back to The Lanes I trudged with my neatly folded sheet of A4 paper tucked safely in my pocket.

The venue looked a bit busier when I returned, a few more people had come in and were busy ordering beer and pizza (which looked incredible BTW!). The tour manager spotted me and sent for the singer and guitarist from Lazy Queen to meet me for a chat (see separate feature). As we were chatting, Slug Puppie kicked off their set so we retired to the beer garden to carry on our chat before heading back in to catch the tail end of their set.

Slug Puppie are a duo consisting of an electric guitar and drums, nothing more and nothing less but the noise they made was joyous, fun and by the reception the local crowd gave them, very well received. pick any duo and make your comparisons if you must, The White Stripes, Royal Blood, The Vaselines, Chas n' Dave (okay, we'll draw the line at them!) but what struck me was that their attitude to their music. They introduced a track as 'Party Song 2' which followed on from 'Party Song 1' played earlier in the set, "a bit like the Star Wars Trilogy", I was going to ask them about this and whether they would continue to put them out until they had as many as the 'Friday the 13th' franchise, hopefully not as that would be silly! All in all, a great band to keep an eye on if you're from Bristol and enjoy simple, indie rock played with a DIY aesthetic and a great deal of passion and enthusiasm.

After a quick change around on stage, it was time for Lazy Queen to show Bristol what they were made of and from the get go, it was clear that they were here to make their mark and deliver a show that would stick with people going forward. The week in the UK playing up and down the country had clearly taken its toll on the frontman as he paused midway through their set to swig a measure of cough syrup from a bottle of Covonia (other cough syrup is available).

Their set was a mix of old and new, the newer material coming from their forthcoming EP 'A Human Reaction' that is showing its face from March 18th on physical and digital formats. Their older material included tracks such as 'Alcohol', 'Bed/Head' and 'Sober' which were all really well received by the eager audience who had showed up to check out the band on a cold Monday evening!

Musically, it was tough to pigeon hole them to any degree, I guess I would say that they are a blend of indie rock, fused with elements of grunge and slacker rock, intertwined with some melodic guitar work and a driving rhythm section, I never said was the equivalent of Barry Norman for music lovers but you know what, they got me through the evening and I was really pleased to have seen them on their first tour of the UK and their first ever trip to Bristol.

I didn't take my proper camera so please excuse the shitty mobile phone pics that I took of them doing their thang, maybe when they return to UK shores in the near future, I'll be better prepared and will show up with my kit so I can capture the mood of the show a little better. If you're looking for a new band to sink your teeth into, definitely check out Lazy Queen, they have a catalogue of tracks on Spotify already, ready to be heard by all and sundry, check out their new EP when it lands in mid-March 22 and get on the socials to show them some love!

Words and Pictures by Steve Muscutt