Comanechi, Skinny Girl Diet, Victor Talking Machine @ The Lexington

Boisterous acrobatics

19/07/12

After Comanechi's blustering opening at Gossip's recent Empire gig, I decided to follow them to their next, headlining adventure. A winning move, as I was to find out. 

Skinny Girl Diet

First things first: Skinny Girl Diet are one freaking amazing band! Delilah, Ursula and Amelia are from London and they play mean guitar, bass and drums, alongside a very becoming decadent and crude vocal cacophony. Unique inner force and brashness translated to noise, with casual punk immediacy and a refreshing lack of pretentiousness. After Eyes and Douchebag (which you can find at their Soundcloud page), they debuted a new song (Insomnia, if I'm not mistaken, but I was too busy to take notes you know...).
I, for one, am looking forward to their next gig - and when they finally come up with a proper CD (I'll settle for a CD-R) I'm grabbing it!
Victor Talking Machine, on the other hand, were a pretty standard and mostly boring indie rock band (especially compared to such loud-voiced competition), which I was making an effort to concentrate on. The moment their guitars started to get interesting, they added these faux-sensitive boy vocals - not my thing...

Victor Talking Machine

But Comanechi, I was sure they wouldn't let me down.
Wild Ms Matsuura screamed and cavorted maniacally from the start to the very end, on stage or wandering about the bar. The band has just taken on a new drummer, a pretty boy very much concerned with his hair. A disappointment, from that particular perspective - both Akiko ‘Keex ‘ Matsuura (despite sporting a stylish, seductive attire) and Simon Petrovitch happily crash their looks on stage.
...But, what do you know, the drummer started rocking nuts the moment his newbie ass touched the stool; so we forgive him (dude, stop worrying so much about your fringe between songs!). In all fairness, he did great work.
As for the usual suspect duo, they also debuted a new song, adding to their first loud and proud collection Crime of Love. Mesmerizing Fingers, Death Of You, My Pussy, freaking wicked songs!

Comanechi

I don't always lend a sympathetic ear to female rock vocalists - with the exception of Lydia, Patti, PJ, Kim and a limited few others. They have this thing...
They unknowingly give out a baffling weakness that blemishes their sense of music power. Instead of matching the inner strength with the force of their music, they seem to struggle to retain themselves from drowning - as they apparently crumble under the weight of their music; but they still try to convince us otherwise.
Well, that's not the case with these girls. At last, the bad ass chicks are back in town.


Review and photography by Danai Molocha