Photo: WENN
It may be terribly British to keep mentioning the weather but, as temperatures rise to near unbearable levels tonight it’s hard to ignore. Still, if there is a band more apt for feeling like you might melt and die than Girls we can’t think of one.
Stopping off in the UK for a one-off date, Christopher Owens and Chet White display their increased profile physically and roll deep with a full backing band as well as three backing singers. This increased presence boosts the two kinds of Girls songs there are impressively with the catchy, throwaway pop tunes adding muscle to their bony bodies and the smacked out blissful melancholy of their longer moments sounding gargantuan.
Watched on by a veritable feast of fellow indie stars (we spot members of The Maccabees, Yuck, Frankie & The Heartstrings, Veronica Falls, Spectrals, Los Campesinos and Jack Penate) we worry that, should a bomb go off in here quite a few festivals would be in trouble. For a bit. They however, along with plenty more, are treated to nothing more explosive than a master class in turning music-blog hype into genuine, soul shaking brilliance.
First album moments like ‘Laura’ and ‘Lauren Marie’ offer a Summery lilt to the bittersweet tonic that is the murky blackhole of ‘Hellhole Rat Race’, just one of the many songs that every last member of Girls look like they’re giving their entire soul over to performing.
It is the 2011 album ‘Father, Son, Holy Ghost’ which contains Girls greatest moments to date though and, fittingly, brings out the best in the band tonight. ‘Honey Bunny’ impresses; a quick fire and upbeat ode to rejection, Owens wraps his legs around his guitar as if he wants to ride it out of the door and away from that which he is confronting. However, it is ‘Vomit’ that steals the show. A wall of noise sees the flowers wrapped around each mic stand shed petals to the floor only for one of the aforementioned backing singers to step forward and take it to church at a volume somewhere between ‘rocket launch’ and ‘apocalypse’. They may look like unlikely collaborators and we’d pay good money to see a reality TV show made of their offstage activities (The Real Backing Singers Of Girls anyone?) but in that moment everything makes perfect sense.
Often a dreamer, Owens ends the night on a high by chasing a better life for himself and giving one to his audience via the pizza and wine anthem ‘Lust For Life’. We might now have the suntan but it’s sure going to be a long time before we see something this good again.
