Welcome to Cardiff on a cold winter night. It ain’t about to stay cold for too long. We’re getting rude, crude and ready to lube with some high class degenerate dirge. Viagra Boys are displaying their panache for paunches and their penchant for post punk, and the whole thing’s about to get playful.

This is rags to rags ‘tude with sunglasses indoors and a US -bent lean Stockholm scowl. There’s a Krautrock distinction to their post disco primal and enough bravado to drown chivalry for good. Lucky for chivalry, and guaranteeing its survival, the tongue’s so deep in the cheek it’s half chewed on. So for drugs, booze and debauchery blues, all pumped out in squalor and speed, here comes all the above in abundance.

‘Ain’t No Thief’ and ‘Ain’t Nice’ show them off at their best, in one of three states Viagra Boys thrive in. In this state they’re lean, pinpointed and tight, with wisecrack precision and agro. They’re a part of the punch line for every joke made about all things too ‘scene’ to be scene. It’s a blister of ear popping heat. And as I stand in the balcony, in my ivory tower, legs below me point upward and straight in the air like open scissors in shrink-wrapped black jeans. Bouncers grapple to grab hold of limbs, and there’s a new dazed and confused now ex-crowd surfer staggering back to the pack every minute.

In their next state they’re purveyors of noise. It flicks from sumptuous to seemingly aimless. But it’s all pleasingly sleazy throughout. Synths do their thing as they cut through the grease, a sax that gets its own show blows all hell through its pipes, squeezing out every last death rasp and holler. It’s damn hot in here and it’s sweaty, it’s in a pool all around our inked singer. I don’t envy the inside of the thick leather Stetson that our synth-squealer’s decided to wear. And as rhythms and bass lines and guitar scuzz keeps grinding, we’re as happy as hogs stuck in mud. Ok they don’t have the nuance for blues as they pontificate through schlock country grunge, but with quick blasts of animated drum-machine violence and twists into Modern Lovers coloured garage, we never stick in one place for too long.

Then it’s back to that sharp tongue for ‘Troglodyte’ and ‘Sports‘ before the ear-to-ear grin of state 3; an unbound self-indulgent assault of pure ego, a showcase of hostile and id. ‘Shrimp Shack‘ gets a glorious end of set treatment as it flails its way out of control. It’s a mess, it’s gratuitous, it’s reckless and mean, it’s rung out ‘till we’re pummelled and raw. Outside it’s just dipped below freezing. I’ll stick around for the encore and warmth.    

Viagra Boys played The Great Hall at Cardiff’s Student Union 24.1.23. Links to music and more just below.