Horsegirl at Paper Dress Vintage

8 July, 2022

I caught Horsegirl’s ‘Ballroom Dance Scene’ on the radio and was instantly hooked, immediately downloading it from iTunes. Their followup, Billy, was equally enjoyable. A very comfortable 90s sound. A bit grunge, a bit shoegaze, mixing grungy guitars with a laid back melodic sound. Billy, was especially enjoyable, building up layers of washes of guitars with nice vocals and great drum beat. They were immediately on my list of bands to catch after lockdown. So when some gigs were advertised at Paper Dress Vintage, including a matinee show that would mean I wouldn’t have to wrestle with Sunday trains, I jumped at the opportunity.

It was only with the release of their excellent debut album two weeks earlier, that I realised how young they were. It is a tribute to the quality of their songwriting that I had imagined a band with much more maturity than these teenagers, barely out of school. These are talented young adults.

Paper Dress Vintage is one of those cool shops that really are just glorified second hand shops with good PR. It was no surprise to see Horsegirl taking the stage in vintage clothing. Not sure if this is how they normally dress, but with their age, they looked like extras from Stranger Things. But in all honesty. The Stranger Things vibe worked with their sound.

Sadly, sound was an issue. Paper Dress isn’t a venue I go to very often, so I don’t know where is a good place to stand. As always, I was down at the front, but not centre stage. (I don’t like blocking artists from the audience). However, where I was standing meant the speakers were actually slightly behind me. Usually this isn’t too much of an issue in a small venue. In this case the vocals were completely lost over the sound from the on-stage amps. What I was hearing I really enjoyed. I just wasn’t hearing the full picture. A bit disappointing, but my fault. What was clear though, these are very talented teenagers. Musically, they are excellent. Like their songwriting, they play with a maturity that belies their age. Really impressive. There’s big things to come from these girls

Set List