In Review: The Moonlandingz

Photos: Anna Dallas

“Acid Klaus is in the house!” yells The Moonlandingz’ drummer as Adrian Flanagan swaggers onstage, taking position before his electric combo organ in a drooping black hat and black sunglasses. Scanning the room, he realises he’s aboard Bristol’s floating venue, Thekla, and declares: “Nah man, this ain’ a house - this is a boat…”  Then comes frontman Lias Saoudi, his torso wrapped skintight in clingfilm, a fashion-forward shell he has adopted on this tour. A fitting prelude to the bizarre show that was about to follow.

The Moonlandingz are a rock outfit formed in 2015 as a collaboration between members of Sheffield’s Eccentronic Research Council and London’s Fat White Family. The result: a provocative blend of sound - experimental electronics, provided by Adrian Flanagan and Dean Honer (formerly of I Monster) offer a krautrock backbone, blended with sleazy punk and fronted by Lias Saoudi’s crazed showmanship. 

Their 2017 debut LP, Interplanetary Class Classics, introduced audiences to The Moonlandingz’ delirium that tackled themes of alter-egos, decadence and social decay. That same year they released an EP, before disbanding temporarily, taking a 7 year break from The Moonlandingz. Now, in 2025, they’ve resurfaced with fresh filth for their fans to feast on. 

The new album, No Rocket Required, exhibits unprecedented strangeness even by The Moonlandingz’ standards. It moves between synth-pop and dance-punk (‘The Sign of a Man’), and industrial techno (‘The Krack Drought Suite’), leaning more heavily into euro dance pop than previous releases, a stylistic shift that may leave fans somewhat divided. All of it is folded into a cutting satirical commentary of contemporary culture. Noteworthy features from Iggy Pop, Nadine Shah, Jessica Winter and actor Ewen Bremner (of Trainspotting) set the stage for an anticipated UK tour.

The gig kicks off with Ewen Bremner’s ‘Some People’s Music’. Lias reads the words from a piece of paper as he paces across the stage, joking, “I can’t remember the words, I’ve got early onset” he quips. This was followed by ‘The Insects Have Been Shat On’, and then a fan favourite: ‘Black Hanz’.

It didn’t take long for the audience at Thekla to come alive. By the third song, an unhinged mosh pit formed engulfing anyone within a 5-person radius, including some slightly older fans who were either swallowed whole or swiftly ejected to the fringes. Had the gig peaked too early? Hardly. It was simply the result of Lias Saoudi’s irresistibly intoxicating powers of physical performance.  

Saoudi, or Johnny Rocket, is the gene-spliced product of a moment of interloping between an 80s astronaut who strayed too far from Earth’s gravity and fell into the arms of a Lunarian harlot. He twists and squirms across the stage in a pandemonium that has the audience both entranced and unsettled, squelching in his own sweat that has amalgamated beneath the clingfilm, wailing hardly intelligible lyrics in trans-dialectical spurts of English and Lunarian code. 

The gig proceeds, alternating between tracks new and old, the set sewn together by bouncing basslines and stocky sounds emulating from Flanagan’s organ.  A highlight of the gig came from the new album, ‘The Sign of Man’. An 80s style dance beat underpinning Saoudi’s nonsensical lyrics which seem to preach of the depravity of man, alienation, lust and love. During this track, Jeanie (of Jeanie and The White Boys) joins the band, shaking a maraca and amplifying the chaos on stage. 

The final song is The Moonlandingz’ foray into fundamental techno: ‘The Krack Drought Suite’. The drummer pounded his kit with erratic energy while the bassist abandoned his instrument to perform yoga-like moves at the front of the stage. Saoudi and Flanagan screamed “Krack Drought!” for almost ten minutes, before politely giving thanks and exiting the stage. 

After their UK tour, the next move for The Moonlandingz is anyone’s guess. Maybe they’ll spread their chaos across the seas, or disappear in space for another 7 year orbit. Either way, they have delivered the absurdity we came for.