The Girls in Synthesis album was my favourite album of 2020. Dark gothy punk. It just felt right for those dark days. Tonight was my first chance to catch them live. Support was from Goucha’s lowly soul band

A sad farewell to a great garage rock band. The Abjects always wrote catchy garage rock songs and put on a good show. Songs were usually sorted out within 4 minutes and never overstayed their welcome. I have seen them several times in London and also caught them at SXSW in 2016 and 2019. Both times playing to an appreciative crowd. Singer Noemi is going back to Spain. Hopefully, this isn’t because of Brexit, but I think we might see more of this over the next few months as EU citizens decide to give up on the UK.

Support on the evening was from Dancehall, Something Leather and Platypus Complex.

Support was from Ulrika Spacek

Saturday

I arrived late, but (un)luckily they were running late. So I only missed the first band. The first band up were Peaness with a great line of jangly, indie pop.

The Cross Makers were up next. They were billed at the Holy Motors but they informed us that they’ve decide to change their name. They didn’t do much for me. They looked like two different bands pushed together.

When Whitebait setup I thought I wouldn’t like them. A three piece with the singer behind a keyboard could easily be quite bland. But they were saved because I liked the singer’s voice.

Wolf Girl

T-Shirt Weather

Seconds

Two White Cranes performance was a bit messy. It looks like the band had just been put together for a tour. So there was a lot of ‘how does this one go’ conversations between the drummer and guitarist. But it didn’t detract from the performance.

Try the Pie had flown over from the US for a mini UK tour with Two White Cranes. Playing solo. I really enjoyed this performance. Great voice that suited the music

T.O.Y.S

Unfortunately, the late start meant that I the bands were running late and I had to get off for my train home. So I missed a few bands

Sunday

Again I arrived late and missed the first band and the second band, Camp Sky were just finishing up their set.

Next up was Oh Peas. This was a bit of an odd one. What I heard was pleasant enough but the singer was suffering really badly from nerves. On the one hand I want to be sympathetic. I couldn’t stand up on stage on my own. But on the other hand, this didn’t feel like an isolated case. I think she’s regularly suffers from nerves. I just wonder why you wouldn’t take shelter in a band and in all honesty, her music would be improved with a band around her as I think some base and drums would give her music a better dynamic.

Good Grief did very little for me until they brought up a guest singer at which point I thought they had much more energy and a better dynamic which then seemed to keep going until the end of their set.

The next band were the surprise highlight of the weekend. Otoboke Beaver are a Japanese four piece girl band who have so much energy. They play that kind of garage punk pop that’s popular with Japanese bands. As they were singing in Japanese, I just held on and enjoyed the ride. They were so good, I caught them again later in the week.

Dirtygirl had the unenviable task of following Otoboke Beaver. But she did a great job.

Next up was the extremely talented Haiku Salut. I did think that their instrumental led music might not work in the Shacklewell. But surprisingly it did.

Due to the day running late again. Chorusgirl closed my second day. But this was perfect. This was the band that caused me to buy the tickets. I’d seen them earlier in the year and really enjoyed their sound and energy and tonight’s performance was no different.

Just before I left, I managed to catch on song of Soda Fountain Rag. I quite liked the singer’s voice but the music didn’t do much for me. But then I had an eye on my watch. So maybe I wasn’t really paying attention.

Bookshop.

House Plants

Seeds of Doubt

Seed of Doubt

Fever Dream

Fever Dream

Joya

Hunck

Hunck

The Wharves

The Wharves

The Wharves

Fun set from an engaging Eureka California setting the bar on audience participation.

Unlike last month’s Lexington gig, tonight Mammoth Penguin played a great glitch free gig.

I heard good things about Spook School. They were fun. They didn’t quite work for me. But I will give them another listen

Nice set from Tigercats

Colleen Green played an interesting set. I thought maybe she was touring without her band so there was something missing from her normal sound. But watching videos afterwards, it seems she doesn’t have a band. I’m not sure that’s a good thing. She had some interesting material. I just didn’t feel using an iPad to provide a rhythm section did the material justice.

It’s about 18 months since I last saw a full September Girls set. I loved their first album and thought the beefing up of some of the songs on their last EP improved an already good album. So I was expecting to be blown away tonight. Sadly, I found their set a bit hit and miss.