Friday 16 October 2009

And she sang upside down from a rope ladder...

At some point a Noisettes gig will be replete with all kinds of sparkly jim-swishery, but at the moment they're making do with one rope ladder, lots of 'bugger-me, I'm famous!' attitude, large hair, and some flashing lights. The current Wild Young Hearts tour looks acrobatic, and sounds absolutely ebullient, not to mention rather good.
Do they need the props to get things going? No, not at all - this band is 7 parts swagger to 3 parts fizz, not to mention being renowned for raucous gigs. They kicked off with car and crowd pleasing 'Don't Upset the Rhythm (Go Baby Go Baby Go)', and sounded far too big for the shanty stage of Cardiff Student Union - though singer Shingai Shoniwa repeatedly abused her rich voice to make bat-like squeals for purposes unknown. No bats chose to make an appearance.
Despite the odd shriek, the music had our little gang swinging like salsafied snakes sizzling on hot grills: highlights of the night included the cover of T-Rex's 'Children of the Revolution' and 'Saturday Night'. Plus Shoniwa barged past my friend and I as we listened to supporting act Mpho. We felt rather special, and a just a bit cool; even if this conviction was based on a far more glamorous elbow being judiciously applied in our direction. I can safely say that all who attended got to bask in shamelessly upbeat, soulful distinctive pop.

3 comments:

adam said...

I saw them in the Buttermarket cellars (nka The Severn Cellars) about four years ago, when they turned up as a gig in Birmingham had been cancelled and they heard there was a gig here instead and could they join in please. They weren't the best things in the world then - Envy and Other Sins and New Rhodes were also playing and were much better, but it still find it surprising that a band who were hawking themselves into gigs a few years ago are making 'songs of the summer' now.

Ez said...

Yeah it's quite suprising how things change; I saw them supporting Muse a few years ago, and back then they were a ball of noisy pretentions. No more though last night they were pretty glitzy with some nice soulful music.

world of sian said...

I think some words to some them up... fizz, sparkly, fun, rhythamatic lol