Blood Red Shoes at Ginglik

Blood Red Shoes at Ginglik

04 September, 2009
by: Joe Harrod

Blood Red Shoes play Ginglik tonight and Sam from the Maccabees is DJing after! OMG so exciting it's like, I'm gonna cream myself... Big woop!!

Not actually. Despair pervades. It's freezing cold in Shepherd's Bush. Far better watch poor dead Steve Irwin hunt crocodiles than slink sideways through this wind. Father too drunk to come for dinner. Wife refusing to venture out for the gig. Alone. But the Blood Red Shoes feel this pain. And they sort it out. They kick ass.

The kids are all knobs, hangers-on or fake Notting Hill versions of the Shoreditch scene. But never grow up please, never become old and embittered. Seriously though, who taught you to put your make-up on?

Still, Ginglik is the ideal place to see Brighton's better answer to the White Stripes. A tiny, effortlessly cool venue where the punters have to walk past the sound rig for their frequent loo breaks, and the amps come all the way up to the low ceiling. The band are right here, pushing past the haircuts to get to their kit.

How sexy is Laura-Mary Carter then? Maybe not that hot if she was behind a checkout, although still in the parlance of our times, worth a squirt. But she's kind of a goddess up there with her guitar strapped on. And she's been studying the Bruce Dickinson theory of audience eye contact connection. I see you, baby.

Maybe Steven Ansell is even sexier. Or is that illegal? Anyway he's a cute boy and he bangs those drums something amazing. Together they're a punk sound wall, inflected with world-weariness beyond their years which nicely catches and reflects the ambiance. 

 photo: alterna2

Wait a minute. Laura-Mary is really in tune with the downer. She's truly sizing up the crowd. 'I feel like I'm playing a wedding reception' she remarks of the wet poseurs weakly wailing after their second track, and when the applause rallies slightly 'Thanks. You sound so genuine.' Sarcasm dripping.

Blood Red Shoes respond to this underwhelming entourage with a blistering set: defiant, tight and short. Coruscating vocals, huge noise and great variety for a drum and guitar. The new material is superb, including a marching anthem that has everyone in the crowd except one bobber at the front transfixed and bemused. A good sign with this rabble.

The highlight of the set is the penultimate track, 'I Wish I Was Someone Better' as Laura-Mary repeats and repeats 'I've made a mistake'. The closer is massive as well and ends with an explosion of drums and a bent feedback squeal which is still reverberating as the guitarist unstraps, storms off the stage and pushes the crowd aside on her way to the VIP area. That's class.

Let's not stay for the Maccabees DJ set. They're kind same-y anyway, and who could possibly care what records they like?


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Joe Harrod