R.U.B + THE MENSTRUAL CRAMPS + WRENCH – THE PRINCE ALBERT, BRIGHTON 16.4.26
A night of raging guitars awaits us at The Prince Albert as we welcome R.U.B & The Menstrual Cramps for their final night of their co-headline tour, and fueling the sludge level Wrench are in support.
Now the first thing anyone I’ve mentioned this gig to in the run up has said to me is “oh I didn’t know you like punk” well the answer to that is “neither did I”, yes I’m and indie kid at heart, BUT I am not one to be pigeon holed musically thank you very much!
R.U.B first came to my attention in the Summer of 2025 when I was directed to Bandcamp to have a listen to the ‘Religious Man’/’Good Bloke’ 7”. I liked what I heard and promptly ordered it, whilst there I got myself familiar with the rest of their catalogue and got then got chatting with the band via email, roll forward 10 months and here I am wearing the t-shirt right at the front for their first ever UK tour and first ever Brighton appearance; and it’s an occasion I’m very much looking forward to.
We have already been fully warmed up by Wrench & The Menstrual Cramps, so when R.U.B come on stage at 21:30 everyone in this sold out room is fired up and ready to mosh. A few technical fixes held back lift off, but at 21:35, drummer Chloe with her red eye make-up, hits those skins and we are off into ‘Did I Ask?’ as the chug of all 3 guitars signaled we were go!
Vocalist Sophie asked “how is everybody doing?, we are so excited to be here, it’s our first international tour, thank you so much for coming out” The next song was “for anyone that had been in a situation where they have not felt safe, a situation they have had to appease someone and push down that feeling in their gut”. It was called ‘Nice’ and whoa, did this one blow your socks off, 100% miles an hour, the tone was truly set.
The next song was dedicated to Kardell Lomas who was killed by her abusive partner, Sophie told us about it and for us to look up ‘Broken Promises’, we were then played a collection of audio clips relating to the case. The song was ‘Ultimate Violations’ from recent EP release ‘Unaddressed Culture’, it was an angry and ferocious number with Dasha adding some sludge backing vocal screams. “It’s an important song to play, now we’ll have a bit of a reprieve” said Sophie almost winded from performing it, Dasha added “we cover the whole spectrum from rage to systemic injustice to one guy that pissed me off once.”
Next up was another from the recent EP it was called ‘Tell Me Why’, this one reminded me a little of Nirvana and had Dasha on vocals, a slightly slower song, but picking up the noise levels as it progressed. We were straight into ‘Self Soothe’ again this was not as rage filled as earlier numbers, more in the reaches of garage band grunge.
Before ‘Better In My Head’ Sophie gave some shout outs to The Menstrual Cramps for the amazing tour, and bass player Ruby, who booked the shows and organised the tour, then a shout out to opening band Wrench who “were so sick, sludgy as f*ck” and a final shout out to the gig promoter Jimmy Diamond of Top Left Club fame. This was another fine number indeed.
“Right we promised heavy, we promised sludge” we were told by Sophie, she then told us how she was brought up a Mormon and how “f*cked up it was” and “how it is amazing that now to come all around the world and to be able to make community”, something Sophie never thought would be possible as a teenager, she continued “the favourite part of this tour is to be here and be with people that give a sh*t about the things they give a sh*t about, everybody cares and looks after each other, everyone is intent on building in this f*cked up world”. The song was ‘Religious Man’, one from their 2025 ‘Split’ 7”. This song was venturing more into the sludge arena now, much heavier, slower but pumped with rage and angst. “Like an exorcism” as Sophie said at the end. Keeping with the punk sludge vibes we then had the excellent ‘The Gavel’.
As tonight was the last of the co-headline tour with The Menstrual Cramps, Sophie said they were going to focus on “maximum together time” and had the band all come on stage. The song was about what we could call “a lad” in the UK, it was ‘Good Bloke’ and funnily enough the song from the 2025 ‘Split’ 7” that first caught my attention. Both bands had a great time up on stage during this one, all dancing, singing, drinking beer, and a proper party atmosphere. Emilia got a “We love R.U.B” chant going before they left the stage.
The final song of the night was ‘Womb’ and the bands self-proclaimed favourite to play. What a way to end things, Rat came up on stage to take over guitar duties whilst Sophie went out into the crowd and ended up being crowd surfed around. A perfect end to the co-headline tour and a perfect start to a relationship with Brighton. This set was 45 minutes of pure quality, R.U.B really have it all, a great sound that can veer into several territories, metal, grunge, a tinge of sludge, but its punk through and through. I am converted, I admit it, but I was sold on them since first finding them on Bandcamp. May their return to the UK come soon.
R.U.B:
Sophie Elizabeth Jest – guitar, vocals
Dasha Romanowski – guitar, backing vocals
Chloe Worley – drums
Ruby – bass
R.U.B setlist:
‘Did I Ask?’ (from 2026 ‘Unaddressed Culture’ EP)
‘Nice’ (from 2020 ‘Demo’ EP)
‘Ultimate Violations’ (from 2026 ‘Unaddressed Culture’ EP)
‘Tell Me Why’ (from 2026 ‘Unaddressed Culture’ EP)
‘Self Soothe’ (from 2026 ‘Unaddressed Culture’ EP)
‘Better In My Head’ (from 2023 ‘One Out’ EP)
‘Religious Man’ (from 2025 ‘Split’ 7”)
‘The Gavel’ (from 2026 ‘Unaddressed Culture’ EP)
‘Good Bloke’ (from 2025 ‘Split’ 7”)
‘Womb’ (from 2023 ‘One Out’ EP)
Kicking off this evening’s bill are a new act to me, and that act is Wrench who comprise Ronni Harris (vocals), Aneurin Graystock (guitar, backing vocals), Daniel Lyddiat (drums) and Ryan Smith Allen (bass, backing vocals).
From what I can find online in my pre-gig homework is this Brighton based band formed in late in 2025, they have been chalking up plenty of gigs since then on the Brighton scene and have put out one demo song ‘The Well’, so I don’t have much to go on or know what to expect.
The band’s own introduction on line reads Wrench are a; “beer fueled sludge band from Brighton” they are “Built to last, designed to deafen, Blood, sweat and beers”. A big crowd has come into hear and as would expect, everyone is looking distinctly punky.
At 19:46 we were treated to a short 25 minute set, taking in 6 songs. Now I have to admit up front, Wrench are not my usual go-to type of music, so that in itself is going to be first.
Drummer Daniel, got the pace going with a rousing drum intro coupled with some wailing guitar from Aneurin, we had a good minute and half of this building to Ryan getting that bass going like a growling jet engine and two minutes in Ronni’s vocal erupted the song was ‘Get Wrenched’…and we all very much did for a full 5 minutes.
‘Matthew Hopkins Killed My Great Great Grandfather’ and ‘COASTIN’ followed. What I really liked was the continuous instruments throughout the set. It was like once started, no-one was going to stop until the set totally ended, so you had that constant buzz and throbbing going, each song leading into the next with no downtime. Ronni did say something as we morphed into the fourth and currently untitled new song in the set, but as the instruments were so loud she was drowned out. They cut the guitar for a moment for us to catch Ronni say “two songs left”, to be corrected by Daniel there were actually three more. This one had both Ryan and Aneurin add some backing vocals. Talking of vocals, good god, I don’t know how Ronni screams and wails as she does, it must shred her throat, I know this music is sludge and for those that don’t know, that means it’s a subgenre of heavy metal blending slow heavy riffs of doom metal to screamed angst filled vocals and Wrench are ticking all the boxes here as they did throughout the next song ‘Jersey Devil’.
The final song of the set was another new untitled one. Heavens this one started off pretty slow and ended in screaming mayhem, Daniel going crazy on those drums and both guitarists shredding hard.
It was certainly quite the set a real wake up call, like I say none of them stopped. Daniel was a beast on those drums, some of those fast ones he was a machine, the guitarist were both going for it, Ryan often you couldn’t see his face as his long hair poured down whilst he looked down to his low hanging bass which was practically on his knee and lest us forget Ronni, whoa! those screaming vocals, if beer fueled sludge is your thing, Ronni and the band are going to tick all of your boxes. What a start to the evening!
Wrench are playing again at The Prince Albert on 3rd July, so catch them then.
Wrench:
Ronni Harris – vocals
Aneurin Graystock – guitar, backing vocals
Daniel Lyddiat – drums
Ryan Smith Allen – bass, backing vocal’s
Wrench setlist:
‘Get Wrenched’ (unreleased)
‘Matthew Hopkins Killed My Great Great Grandfather’ (unreleased)
‘COASTIN’ (unreleased)
“Untitled New One” (unreleased)
‘Jersey Devil’ (unreleased)
“Untitled New One” (unreleased)
Another new band for me, although their name does ring a bell, but I can’t put my finger on why. The Menstrual Cramps are a 4 piece band from Bristol, described on their Bandcamp page as: “QUEER PUNK BAND, SMASH THE FASH”. The four piece consists of Emilia Elfrida on vocals, AJ on drums, Rat on guitar and Oana on bass. The first thing that struck me as they took to the stage is how damn cool they all looked, dressed in a variety of custom made orange and black outfits, orange is my favourite colour, it must be a sign, instantly I got the vibe that this band and set are going to be fun all the way.
And away we went at 20:30 hours, vocalist Emilia standing with her back to us as the drums and bass were going cried out loud “Are you ready Brighton, I can’t hear yooouuuu” then roared “waaaaaaaaaaa” and they launched into ‘Hashtag Sad Penis’, what an opener, brilliant lyrics, punchy vibes from the band.
Emilia, who was not one to stand still on stage, thanked us all for coming. “Nice to be back in Brighton, where the sun is shining and the sea is wet. This song is for the women footballers out there…do you wanna be my girlfriend?” The song was the latest single ‘Kiss On The Pitch’. This one I had heard in advance, check the video on YouTube, it was a corker.
The next song was about boycotting and called ‘Boycott The Lot’ and was led into first with an introduction about the BDS movement by Emilia. This jogged my memory on why the band rang a bell in my mind, they were on my watch list for The Great Escape 2024, but were the first to pull out what with Barclays involvement. It had the crowd going with the chants of “Boycott, Boycott, Boycott”.
The next song was ‘Body Politics’ which Emilia said was about her relationship with her gender “which is very fluid”. During her pre-song speech she implored everyone to “please digest theory, political, queer, feminist theory”, very true and sage advice. It was a fast pace number, closing with an almost rapped final verse, wow the speed of AJ on those drums too.
A strong bass line from Oana took us into ‘Mutual Masturbation’, with Emilia telling us it was about to get sexy in here. Something her stage dance and movements demonstrated throughout to much amusement of the crowd.
Another introduction from Emilia “This….is….‘Class….War’” and boom Rat’s guitar was on fire; clearly this one was well known and popular with the crowd, who were all chanting back. Aside from the bloody great musicians here, the songs and lyrics are excellent, so honest, educational and fun. We were treated to a Rat guitar solo during this one as Emilia pointed at her throughout. That was another thing I really liked during the set, everyone in the band was brought in and involved by Emilia, no-one was left standing at the back.
Next up we had ‘Antagonistic’ which had Rat out in the crowd with her guitar, a proper raging song, followed by ‘Abortion’ one that Emilia wrote in response to her mum’s reaction on the subject “I’ve had an Abortion, no I’ve had two, If you don’t like then f*ck you”. Now, I am going to keep saying it, but that’s because it’s true, but yet another bloody great song, so much energy.
For ‘Neo Nazi’ AJ and Oana swapped instruments, it was being played at the request of R.U.B and is the band’s number one song on spotify (not that any money is made from that). AJ had singing parts during the song while she had a whale of a time playing the bass.
With just two songs left to go Rat or Ratus as Emilia kept affectionately saying broke into Travis’s ‘Why Does It Always Rain On Me?’. Emilia put her hand over the guitar stopping it just as that question in the song was posed and replied with “because you’re a f*cking c*nt” and boom, fast drums, pumping bass and flaming guitar as ‘Lying Cheatin F*cking Scumbag” took off, what a song, one that really got your heart and blood pumping.
For the final song ‘Idols’ two members of R.U.B were brought on stage as backing vocalists; Dasha and drummer Chloe, who was jokingly referred to as Big AJ, as both drummers were sporting bright orange eye makeup. The song’s theme was don’t idolise your idols, in this instance focused on Iggy Pop (or Iggy Poop as he was referred). The song was a frantic banger to end on, this time it had Rat and Emilia both out in the crowd.
Well, it was a first for me and it 100% won’t be my last. I was totally sold on The Menstrual Cramps, they have everything going for them, what a front person Emilia is, the talks between songs, engaging, energetic, funny, never still. The band are well honed musically, the pace every changing in harmony, the band declare they are DIY, loud, queer, anti-fascist, anti-racist, pro-choice, intersectional, and feminist, and that is all true and interwoven into their look and lyrics, a friend in the crowd told me beforehand I would be blown away….I was.
The Menstrual Cramps:
Emilia Elfrida – vocals
AJ – drums
Rat(us) – guitar
Oana – bass
The Menstrual Cramps setlist:
‘Hashtag Sad Penis’ (from 2017 ‘We’re Not Ovaryacting’ album)
‘Kiss On The Pitch’ (a 2025 single)
‘Boycott The Lot’ (from 2018 ‘Free Bleedin’ album)
‘Body Politics’ (from 2024 ‘Antagonistic’ EP)
‘Mutual Masturbation’ (from 2018 ‘Free Bleedin’ album)
‘Class War’ (from 2024 ‘Antagonistic’ EP)
‘Antagonistic’ (from 2024 ‘Antagonistic’ EP)
‘Abortion’ (from 2024 ‘Antagonistic’ EP)
‘Neo Nazi’ (from 2018 ‘Free Bleedin’ album)
‘Lying Cheatin’ F*cking Scumbag’ (from 2017 ‘We’re Not Ovaryacting’ album)
‘Idols’ (from 2018 ‘Free Bleedin’ album)
