The Girls Are Back In Town

Last night I did something I haven't done since about 2002 and went to a gig to see someone whose music I'd never heard, on the strength of word of mouth alone. The band were called The Girls, which obviously suggests that they were boys. I don't know much about them, and so thought I'd bow down to the powers of the internet here. Forget that! One thing is for sure, if ever I were to start a band, it'd have a more google-able name than "The Girls". Especially if I wanted to be anti establishment.

The gig was at Rough Trade, a great record store with a few branches across London. I remember it from more laissez faire days, where I did a lot of lounging around in music stores eating free cake and listening to absolutely anything. Some great songs and acts entered my personal playlists that way. No More Dating DJs, India Arie, Handsome Boy Modelling School, Ken Ishii and MC Solaar immediately spring to mind. These days I rely more on the music press, geeks and recommendations. Thanks to those trusty sources I discovered Santigold, M.I.A, Femi Kuti and Bright Eyes, amongst others. One of the things I am most looking forward to with the new home is proper access to iPlayer, so that I can worship at the altar of radio once again.

Anyhow, the only person I'd been able to strongarm into risking a Tuesday night (who in a nod to Perez I intend to call RiRi) and I arrived at Brick Lane to score the free tickets around six. Already the pubs were pretty busy, filled with the young, nubile and trendy. I pretty much felt instantly aged, but even worse, really corporate. This was perhaps accented by the fact that Ri and I had come straight from work, while about 60% of the people around us looked as though they'd just come from a club the night before. In fact, didn't 93 Feet East use to be a daytime club? Wonder if it still is.

Forgetting about whether we were actually seriously uncool, since I know there's no irony in my blackberry, there was a great vibe around Brick Lane at dusk. The gig itself was mediocre. The Girls played an alright set but didn't have anything exceptional. There were enough inoffensive and listenable tunes for me to pay £7 for their album at the end (though I am more excited about The Very Best - Warm Heart of Africa). I put the performance down to inexperience though, and suspect that by this time this year they'll be getting excellent reviews at the "Introducing..." stages in Festivals all over the UK. They claimed to not have a setlist (as if) for the gig, since it was more like "chilling with friends". I don't normally sell things to my friends for profit and survival, though I suppose that may just be a bizzare twist on morality. Their three initial tracks all sounded like B-sides, and actually reminded me of how I felt when I first listened to Let It Come Down. Let it Come Down sounds very much like an album of B-sides the first time you listen to it (especially if you think that three years before that there was Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness), although it was a massive grower and to this day I listen to it when I want to be sad (who needs Snow Patrol?!). There was just not much there that I could see propelling them into the heady heights of success. Although the marketable backstory of being raised in the Children of God will no doubt help. I'm going to be watching this space...