For the rockabilly Bordeaux band Los Purinos, the metal inflected music and stage act is simply an endless anthem to rock 'n' roll joie de vivre. With leather pants and snakeskin boots stomping out rhythm on the stage, Los Purinos' appear to be the type of band that sticks close to core rock 'n' roll values, including seeking out that special ambience that lead singer Roger (aka Nass) Ty describes as "little bars where the beer is better!" Although anything these days carrying the suffix 'billy' might imply a tragically excessive retro approach, with Los Purinos there is a dash of the Clash and no shortage of Motorhead's distorted highway guitar roar.

Yet the strongest link Los Purinos have with the past is a sense of thrill and riding the edge. With a sound so big it had to be reduced to 16-bit CD format, the vinyl EP Legend of Bordeaux Vol. 5 remains to date the only shout of the band yet to be heard much outside of France. This winter is changing all that, as Los Purinos and their Bordeaux rockabilly brothers, Turbobilly, are sharing the marquee on a tour that includes Hungary and the Czech Republic.

With Los Purinos' sound and true to form pants and boots, it seemed strange later to see some photos of Ty wearing a helmet and goggles on stage. Certainly this is a band that doesn't need any cheap tricks to further prove itself, and Ty assures us that this was no gimmick, but was due to a sincere affection for his motorcycle and, therefore, a true to rock 'n' roll sensibility.

Singing with motorcycles though is just the part of the nitro-mix that fuels this band. The riffs that rev the dance floor are heavily amplified and accelerated covers of tunes like Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots are Made for Walking" and the Undertones' "Teenage Kicks."

If Los Purinos aren't enough to clear a few post-holiday cobwebs from your psyche, Turbobilly, which finishes off the evening, certainly will. This outfit, tooled with an upright bass, may at first seem a bit more entrenched in a classic rockabilly sound. Yet the independently produced CD I Like to Sing with My Friends demonstrates no shortage of the punk-rockabilly fusion known as psychobilly. Turbobilly also has an adventurous side demonstrated on the CD, with titles like "Le blues de Marceline" (which is drenched in Sun Studios atmospherics and David Lynch intrigue) or on "Mambo III," in which the band evokes Dick Dale while sailing through a spooky south-of-the-border surf safari.

Mostly though the band is less exotic with songs like "10:15 Saturday Night" in which it shows an infectious ska-billy side. If Turbobilly extends the jams, as the band has a reputation to do, there will be no shortage of excitement in rockabilly fans in the Cross Club audience.