Monday, November 06, 2006

The Gossip / Comanechi / Panther Birmingham Barfly Thursday 2nd November 2006


November, as Moz so wisely pointed out some years ago, spawned a monster. Thus this November sees a monsterous number of gigs (see what I did there?) all tempting me like sirens of sound (no, I've not been drinking). Anyway, on to the review of the first gig of the month. Opener Panther was a delight. A bloke who sounds a bit like Har Mar Superstar trapped in a lift with Justin Timberlake and Jeff Buckley. He did lots of cool / mental dancing too and is an electropop star waiting to happen. Watch his latest video here you mutha.

Comanechi were up next and had a cool Japanese girl drummer (vocals) and male geeeetar player (Peter Hook style shapes) thing going on. In love Japanese girl vocalists. They could sing a shopping list and make it sound and look cool. Don't know her name but it was her birthday tonight and someone had got her some Cava as a pressie...aaahhh bless. If you can like the whole Japanese garage thing as much as I do, check 'em out.

Right. The main event. The. G to the O to the S to the S to the I to the P. Lead singer Beth has been getting so pretty good press this year and I can see why. There are few frontwomen with as much spunk (as it were) as Beth, vocally she could easily out Janis Ms Joplin and she struts some pretty funky stuff all over the stage. Towards the end she climbed over the barriers and danced amongst us mere mortals. I always like bands that do that. TOUCH YOUR PEOPLE...we won't bite...well maybe one ot two of us will...

Lady Baron - who was less than convinced with Panther and Comanechi - loved The Gossip, as did the rest of the crowd. An outspoken lesbian of generous proportions, it makes a real change to see someone like Beth making the pages of NME (naked no less). Perhaps there is hope for the world after all. In a year of outstanding gigs, this has to go down as one of the best. Southern tinged, blues garage rock heaven. Lets hope The Gossip spreads...(oohh, now come on, that's clever right? Oh, okay then, please yourselves).

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