Live Review: The Wonder Stuff in West Hollywood, CA

After an 11-year hiatus from U.S. touring, The Wonder Stuff have returned to give American audiences a look at a different sort of British rock invasion.

On the road in support of their latest release, "Escape from Rubbish Island," The Wonder Stuff played a rollicking Saturday (4/23) set at West Hollywood, CA's Troubadour, focusing on songs from their new album and their debut release, "The Eight Legged Groove Machine."

Original members Miles Hunt (vocals/guitar) and Malcolm Treece (lead guitar) were joined onstage by new members Mark McCarthy on bass and Andres Karu on drums. Despite the lineup change, the band retained its classic punk-folk sound. Old favorites like "A Wish Away," "Don't Let Me Down Gently" and "On The Ropes" blended well with new tracks like "Bile Chant," "Another Comic Tragedy" and "Was I Meant to be Sorry."

In addition to the new members, another difference in the lineup was the absence of the band's fiddle and piano players. Some fans asked for songs featuring the extra instrumentation, like "Size of a Cow" and "Circlesquare," but their requests were denied-- perhaps temporarily. Hunt assured the audience that when The Wonder Stuff returns to the U.S. come back later in the year, they will have a fiddle player.

Still brash after all these years Hunt took also time between songs to sip from his bottle of wine and elaborate on his feelings about today's trendy, sensitive bands from the Brit scene--like Coldplay and Keane--calling them "bed wetters;"and to lament the deaths of punk godfathers Joey Ramone and Joe Strummer.

Taken From: http://www.livedaily.com/news/8066.html