Electric Eel Shock @ Madame JoJo's, London

Electic Eel Shock don't mess around. They've become one of the few bands to secure the $50,000 funding through website Sellaband to record their upcoming CD, and they tour constantly, and if tonights show was anything to go by, they'll tour even when the whole band can't make it.Drummer Gian wasn't able to make the gig - his mother was diagnosed with Cancer last year and he has been spending more time back in Japan with her, although the band are set to record their next album in Japan so he can be fully involved with the recording process -  so the band just carried on rolling with a Stand In drummer, with tonight the stool being filled by James Thomas (ex Sludgefeast). They really don't care. They really are a little bit strange... a little bit odd... a little bit crazy...

Just for the record that's all good things too. Frontman Aki is like a possessed demon who having lost his mind, decided he was going to form a metal band. From leaping around the stage, holding his guitar in his teeth, and looking like he should be committed half the time, he acts like the ringmaster in this sweat dripping cavelcade they call entertainment.

Oh, and they're really good too. Musically they play solid punky metal. The banter is top notch, and you really feel at the end of the gig, that this is a band who actually give a shit about their fans, more than that even, they love every single person that walks through the doors. They don't take themselves seriously, they just want to play heavy metal. They want the crowd to join in, frontman Aki demands that the crowd point at bassist Kazuto while screaming "bastard" at him during the song of the same name, then making them do it to him, the drummer and finally themselves.

Electric Eel Shock are a band that just infect you with the need to get drunk, have a good time, and scream at the top of your lungs.