By David O’Neill
This is one of the smallest stages we cover at ÜR! With a maximum capacity of 85 to say its cozy would be an understatement. However, the opening act Amongst Liars definitely brought the big sounds, so this fits in with our current podcast series, ‘Small Stages Big Sounds’…
The energy in the first track,’ You Are Not A Slave‘, really blew the cobwebs out of my head. I really wasn’t expecting the attitude and style as it was a complete contrast to what I was expecting from the THD! girls. Looking around the room you could see people pursing their lips and nodding their heads in appreciation. With seriously heavy bass/drum driven tunes, the punk ethos easily came across in every track
Without missing a beat the same style rattled into ‘The Shameful‘ and it just got better from there. A techno style keyboard opening by James Brummeo to ‘Vice‘ was really different and totally unexpected; it reminded me a bit of Parkway Drive and Nothing More. ‘Alibi‘ was a bit of a more relaxed opening with Ian George coming more to the fore with his vocals. Ross Towner (bass) and Adam Oarten (drums) kept the low end honest and the addition of the digital facemask by Oarten provided something of a different effect that was easily seen in the small venue.
Leo Burdett kept the guitar interest high across all the tracks and not being tied to an amp often went walkabout, albeit very limited by the space. ‘Cut It‘ was very punky but still low end driven by both guitar and bass. The final track, ‘Wolf Machine‘, had a very rapidfire guitar opening and was definitely very early punk in style. Altogether totally unexpected but many in the crowd remarked on how they enjoyed it. With their recent album, I’m sure they will have made many new fans on this tour.
After a relatively short turnaround, The Hot Damn! entered the fray. The colourful quartet led by Gill Montgomery complete with large inflatable unicorn on her head came dancing through the crowd to the front of the venue.
Opening up with the track that nearly didn’t make the album, ‘Fizz Buzz Crash‘, the energy was immediate lifted to “smileosonic”. Follow it with ‘Dance Around‘ and the smile level hit “grinalot”. Whilst many of the songs are written about life experience, (as do many artists), there are very few who can raise a smile whilst being very acerbic about the subject matter as these girls. Life experience of a 30-something group of ladies will also include episodes of party central (with hangover++) as is About Last Night.
There wasn’t an audience member who wasn’t singing along or dancing (albeit on the spot due to the tight space). ‘Jukebox On The Radio‘ is the real singalong track (one of the many!) Whilst lyrically clever and with great hooks the whole set is very well performed by the whole band. I have seen them as support three times now but this whole headline set was just up another level. Given the time to engage with the audience, Gill Montgomery is a very affable front woman, explaining the story behind many of the tracks (as if some of them needed it!). From ‘Loud And Clear’, ‘Automatic‘ and ‘Can You Hear Me Now‘ they are obviously very talented song writers and musicians.
There wasn’t a missed note or beat (never gonna happen with Josie on drums) but it was the overall feeling of enjoyment that you got from the music and lyrics throughout the set that meant everyone left having had a great night of sassy poprock with AT-IT-UDE.
These are very forthright young women who aren’t afraid to speak their minds through their art, and this is no clearer then through the final “encore” track, I didn’t like you anyway.
If you haven’t seen The Hot Damn! and are feeling a bit down then this will lift your spirits and get you ‘Dancing On The Milky Way’ (sorry couldn’t resist it)!
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