June 12, 2023 Review by Jason Roberts & John Gilhoolley
It was June gloom to start on June 2nd, but the afternoon would soon get sunny with GBH coming from UK to Orange County for the first time in five years. Also performing on the show were Modifiers, NIIS, and The Svetlanas.
GARDEN AMP
Garden Grove, California
June 2nd, 2023
Modifiers from Utah – fresh off their Punk Rock Bowling set – had a fantastic set, and not a bad turnout for playing early. The punk/hardcore/surf band has been touring with The Svetlanas and promises a new album soon.
Next up was Los Angeles band NIIS, whose singer, Mimi SanDoe, kept encouraging the crowd to “Come up closer!” She enjoyed communicating with the audience and joking around, even though her appearance was that if an intimidating badass. The band draws inspiration from ‘80s punk and hardcore, so worth a listen if that’s your things.
The Svetlanas were formed in Russia, but are now living in Italy. In person, Olga Svetlanas and her band mates were very sweet, kind, and welcomed their fans for pictures.
Onstage, Olga had intense mannerisms, starting off with high energy songs “Jump,” “Pit-Stop,” and “Spit.” That got the crowd warmed up for “Never Sleep,” “Pussification of Punk Rock,” “Put Your Middle Fingers Up,” “The Magician,” and “Pyromaniac.”
They finished their set with “Don’t Do it” and “God8zcops.” The band was joined by Nic Oliveri from Queens of the Stone Age and The Dwarves late in the set, breaking into “FK the Police” with middle fingers in the air. Before performing their last song, Olga told the audience, “Congratulations, you earned the right to die.” The Svetlanas had a nice blend of thrash metal and hardcore punk and had the crowd entertained with times of moshing and head banging.
After that very spirited performance from The Svetlanas, the crowd was definitely warmed up for GBH.
GBH started their set with songs “Diplomatic Immunity, “Drugs Party in 526,” and “Sick Boy.” After a couple of songs in the pit, vocalist Colin Abrahall jumped onto the platform that the venue converted from a guitar cabinet.
GBH continued their set with “Maniac,” “Gunned Down,” “I Am the Hunted,” “The Prayer of a Realist,” “Generals,” “No Survivors,” and “Give Me Fire.”
Abrahall mentioned that it was the “City Baby Attacked by Rats” 40-year anniversary tour and while GBH planned to visit the US in 2020, instead of being attacked by rats we got attacked by COVID. “We are here now,” he said, “and we might as well do it!” then went into the title song, “City Baby Attacked by Rats” and “City Baby’s Revenge.”
Definitely an amazing moment to close their set. They came back for an encore and finished their set with “Liquid Paradise” and “Bomber” from Motörhead.
The crowd responded with crowd surfers and stage diving to end the epic show!
