Club Mojopia – Pray for Mojo and Ask my Bull at Peggy McCool’s, Warrington 12/10/24

Club Mojopia 1 year Anniversary featuring – Pray for Mojo and Ask my Bull at Peggy McCool’s, Warrington Saturday 12th October 2024

Club Mojopia is a monthly event which takes place in Peggy McCool’s in Warrington which guarantees thrills and spills. Once a month this spectacular showcases outstanding local artists in what’s known around these parts as the best party going. Featuring full band performances of mixed genres including psychedelic, grunge, punk, indie rock and alt with a now famous locally jam session afterwards that anyone’s welcome to join in with. A year on from the launch of Club Mojopia I’m beyond excited to say I’ll be at tonight’s special anniversary gig with headline Pray for Mojo from whom the inspiration for Club Mojopia was spawned and Ask my Bull, another band known for explosive performance. Peggy McCool’s is one cool venue with its finger right on the pulse of local music. A quirky and eclectic space filled with antiques and vintage clothing for sale, an industrial vibe mixed with cosy seventies feel. Being a small venue it means we get to experience full band with incredible sound but up close in the most vibrant environment.

Ask my Bull 

This 3 piece Manchester based band take no prisoners in their vibrant fusion of drum n bass, jazz and punk meets psychedelia with a hint of ska sound. From the onset it’s full on at 100 mph energy wise and the sounds are incredible. All 3 of our members are completely in the zone and give limitless creativity and energy throughout this set. The feels alternate so much – from pulsating and undulating underground club sounds, cathartic and almost transcendental – to verging on a grunge type vibe when male vocal is introduced: angsty, throaty and with a grate. Bass lines soar, wild and free, then wah wah adds another dimension, whilst samples and backing tracks bring the rave or dance like energies home. Saxophone is immense, cutting through the sound, giving a bounce and a different direction, a two tone/ska feel – but not – if that makes sense? Beats are hammered out spectacularly, machine like, pacey, fast and very intense. 

Molly on sax high kicks and bounces her way through the set, artfully managing to balance a bubble- making gun along with saxophone. Bubbles catching the light really adding to the trippy altered state feeling. Hair is thrown around, guitars are swung and our entire venue is eaten alive (happily) with this performance. 

Ask my Bull have been on fire! Cracking performance! It’s such a musical high I can’t tell you! Check out their latest release “Minimal Qualms “ 1/4 track from their latest EP.

Pray for Mojo – headline

As a set this is another that sets its own high standard from the opening chords. An immense presence and energy is felt. Bewildering and mesmerising it hits hard and leaves you breathless and thirsty for more. Psychedelic feels mixed with grunge and an undertone of metal maybe? and a punk like explosion from its core. Songs build, slowly gathering muster, momentum, pace, the embers burning, getting hotter, more ferocious as musical accelerant is poured onto those smouldering embers. Flaming now, blistering sounds become frenzied crescendos, fraught, angry and angsty; powerful instrumentals that erupt into mosh pits of mayhem. Melodic yet aggressive, effortlessly performed, stage presence oozes from every band member. There is this real vigour, intensity and passion – we become transfixed by it and remain so throughout the entire set, fused together with this phenomenal band’s energy. 

Heavy drums are felt from within, complex patterns and sections executed with profusion and wild energy, arms flailing in every direction as Matt smashes his kit. Heavy and loud is the theme. Earworm riffs and gritty guitar licks, distortion, wah wah and fizzing all woven into this masterpiece. Bass lines are earthy, guttural and fuzzy, grounding this sound, then run free, soaring high with reckless abandon feels, yet controlled and well executed. Performance is swagger filled, Greg, often losing himself within the sounds he s creating, often on his knees, head down, hair reaching down toward his guitar. The feels are reckless, wild, yet such a musically tight performance and edgy too. 

Tracks like ‘Rickety Bridges’ bring an eccentricity, solid in foundation, but an eeriness, an unhinged sense but with quirkiness and wit. Real characterful lines; guitars go off on tangents, spindly and intricate then regroup lifting the sounds yet higher. It’s a sound of contradictions, of opposites –  like yin and yang, light and dark – we have heavy yet uplifting, moody yet light, high but low –  it’s strange but beautiful. The feels are new and exciting and it’s a sound you just love on impact. 

There is a musical energy, we have all experienced at some time, it’s like no other and every so often it hits, grabs you with both hands. It’s an excitement, a feeling, a whole new element. At certain live gigs it happens, it’s an all consuming, enveloping energy – that essence of discovering it is special and when it happens it’s magical. Soul igniting, it courses through veins and you will forever remember, treasure even, that experience… that sound… that gig… that moment. This is happening tonight, here and now. Pray for Mojo have that something, that spark, that energy – that musical magic. This dark yet soul stirring, crazy, funny and beautiful, other dimensional feeling sound, full of contradictions that musically are incredible. One of my best ever gigs, and I don’t say that lightly.

Words by Janet Harding 

Photos by Phil Coleman 

 

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