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For a band that have produced two of the strongest, scrappiest albums in recent memory, Joanna Gruesome fly under the radar of far too many music fans.
The band are filling bigger rooms and deservedly so, although the Scala sports too many gaps for tonight’s show to be a warranted sell-out. Quite frankly, the city doesn’t know what it’s missing.
Live, they have never been more impressive. If the stages have swelled slightly, so has the line-up - the newly distributed vocal interplay that now zigzags between three putting greater emphasis on Joanna Gruesome’s delightful contrasts, the addition of an extra guitar and keys beefing up the band’s heavier moments, of which - thankfully - there are many.
From the glorious interlinking of early favourites ‘Secret Surprise’ and ‘Madison’ to the unexpectedly sprightly guitar solo that buoys ‘I Don’t Wanna Relax’, the pace is unrelenting and breakneck, threatening to leave a sleepy London crowd behind.
To say that the room is unresponsive for the initial smattering of tracks would be an understatement. Onlookers seem unable to process the band’s lack of an introduction, spiky overlapping of old and new material and general breeziness, even if, in my mind, these are the elements that still, despite the change in personnel, make Joanna Gruesome such a joy to watch – much of their strengths are buried within unpredictability.
If they drag much of the crowd back on side with a fizzing rendition of ‘Jerome (Liar)’, the sprawling breakdowns of 'Graveyard' should make everyone relieved that they stayed, a dizzying coupling of explosive riffs and sugary vocals, that alongside the offbeat balladry of ‘Hey! I Wanna Be Yr Best Friend', lingers as the evening’s highlight.
Of course, as fans know, when the vicious guitar riffs are silenced to a subtle, whirring hum, Joanna Gruesome perhaps sound like the greatest pop band on the planet - if not the most bubblegum, certainly the most criminally underrated. If there’s any justice, that should change sooner rather than later.
