Big fun at the seaside last Friday night – with our first all-ages LOUD WOMEN night at the very lovely The Piper venue in St Leonards, near Hastings. Excellent sets from Fräulein, Lambrini Girls, I, Doris and I am Her. Our supersnapper Keira Anee was there to capture the mayhem – UPDATE, we also now have a review from Tony Rounce! Read on ...
Oh, we do like to be beside the seaside…
…Thus it was that on a cold February Friday afternoon, the LOUD WOMEN roadshow packed its guitars, keytars, drums, amps, children and any buckets and spades that there was room for into assorted charabancs, and headed for the south coast to participate in a gig at the most excellent pub that is The Piper in Hastings’ next-door-neighbour, St. Leonard’s. It’s fair to say that a splendid time was both guaranteed for all, and had by all – and it will hopefully be the first of many, rather than a fondly remembered one-off in years to come.
As always happens at this time of year, the Hastings/St. Leonard’s area was about to become a hotbed of activity with the start of their annual 5 day ‘Fat Tuesday’ musical celebration, but any fears that it might impact on the number of punters at the Piper were quickly assuaged as healthy numbers started to file up the Piper’s stairs, and into its comfortably sized music room, for a 1900H start.
Being an ‘all ages’ show that had to finish at 2200H and that was already running ever-so-slightly behind time due to weekend traffic problems on the long and winding road that is the A21, LW On Sea hit the ground running. The doors were barely open when local resident – and the evening’s instigator and promoter – Julie Riley’s I am HER duo took to the stage, and regrettably they came and went so quickly that I missed them in the time it took to have a brief comfort break offsite. Having seen Julie do an I am HER solo set at a previous LW event, I can however enthuse with confidence about her frequently dark and often intense songs and impassioned delivery thereof, and I have no reason to assume that the set that was coming to its close as I returned to the Piper’s upstairs room would have been any less riveting than my earlier live experience of her (and his) excellent work.
A small interjection here from Cassie Fox, hello! I am HER were fan-bloody-tastic. I've seen and loved Julie Riley's solo offerings many times in the past, so it was a brilliant bonus to hear her dark grunge ballads supersized with the addition of Jeff, an excellent drummer. I must say, it really was quite the evening for excellent drummers – all four bands boasting top quality drummers. My 8-year-old wannabe drummer son was in the audience and was thoroughly inspired by the whole evening. Anyway – back to you Tony – as you were ...
Braving the gathering crowed without the benefit of a soundcheck, I, Doris jumped in feet first and brought the noise (and a joyful noise at that) from various parts of That London, along with an assortment of their offspring who don’t normally get the chance to see what mum gets up to when she’s not making their tea. I hope the kids were all as impressed as I was with their parents’ performance. As I have mentioned before, this is a musical collective that gets stronger the longer it stays together, and is barely recognizable from the lovably ramshackle unit that made its debut supporting Big Joanie at an LW night in Camden Town, long before the first lockdown. The Dorises that were then were agreeably winsome, and having a bit of fun, have tightened up their game and their music – mostly the work of lead singer and guitarist Doris – has evolved excitingly and aggressively, and is delivered straight from their instruments to your face with a powerful exhilaration that seems to grow with every performance.
Most of I, Doris’s set came from their highly recommended mini-album, which sadly forewent its planned launch party at the end of last year due to Covid-related gig cancellations. LW-On-Sea was technically its launch party by default, and they could hardly have presented a more compelling reason for buying it than the set they played at The Piper. Their songs are great, and so are they. If you can’t find plenty to enjoy in tunes like ‘Does Your Girlfriend Know You’re Here’ ‘Wonderwomen’ and the Dorises’ most recent single ‘In The Ladies’ you may well need to replace your current sense of humour. I, Doris have a few shows coming up, both in London and up North, in the next month. If you were not at The Piper on Friday, you really ought to check out at least one of them, if not more.
The Dorises closed their set with an electrifying version of Bikini Kill’s ‘Rebel Girl’ (or, in this case, ‘Rebel Doris’) which also saw tonight’s line up of the group augmented by other Dorises from bands yet to come.
It was a hard act to follow, but not beyond the reach of Brighton’s Lambrini Girls who made the short trip round the coast to bring their brand of volume-driven punkishness to St. Len’s and to shake some plaster off the ceiling of The Piper’s main downstairs bar. The three Lambrini women are charm personified away from the stage, but put them on one and they become an aggressively howling, completely thrilling wall of sound that is totally irresistible to both the eye and ear. Frontwoman Phoebe Lunny is a powerful force of nature, barking out her lyrics in an urgent manner and engaging with her audience by frequently jumping into it. Imagine Motorhead fronted by Lydia Lunch and you might begin to have an idea of just how much power and physicality this trio can muster up. Comparisions with the early, punky Slits are not misplaced, nor with a more recent audio phenomenon, the soon-to-return Menstrual Cramps. Toe tappers like ‘Boys In The Band’ and ‘I’m Gay And I’m Panicking’ set the by-now full room up for an outbreak of massed moshing at the front for the Lambrinis’ audience participating closer ‘Craig David’. They enjoyed themselves, we enjoyed ourselves and thus the aim of LW On Sea was fulfilled…
…But not yet fully fulfilled as, with one eye on a clock that was ticking down alarmingly fast, the mighty Fraulein took to the stage while many people were still pausing and refreshing downstairs. It didn’t take long for their immense wall of sound to drag people back into the room, and to bear witness to one of the circuit’s fastest rising bands. Joni and Karsten might be a duo but they play their music with the power of ten people, with the bespectacled Dutch drummer’s jazz-influenced percussion and tricky time signatures forming the perfect base for very tall, very Irish, and very adorable Joni to smear a thick layer of guitar grunge over, before adding vocals that go from a whisper to a scream and back again in a way that nobody could ignore. Neither an easy band to comprehensively describe, nor to easily categorise, Fraulein are uniquely Fraulein and therein lies their immense appeal – one which is winning them new fans every time they play, and one which pretty much guarantees that they will haver moved on to bigger venues by the end of this year, another pandemic notwithstanding. I have probably seen Fraulein more than any other band since we were all allowed out again – maybe 20 times, maybe more – and each time they have delivered harder and better than the previous time. There can’t be that many bands out there who have the belief in themselves to deliver new songs that are awaiting a lyric with the same confidence that informs proven crown pleasers like previous singles ‘Belly’ and ‘Pretty People’ or their brand new release ‘Drag Behind’, which brought the set and the first LW On Sea to a close at exactly 2159 and a bit – right on time, and right on the money. Big, big things are happening for this small but perfectly formed unit. You are advised to see them as often as you can, while you can still catch them up close and personal…
…And so ended a highly successful debut for the LOUD WOMEN seaside beano, hopefully the first of many (stay tuned for further announcements…). If you can’t wait for more of the same and feel so inclined, do please come to London’s Hope & Anchor on March 8th for our International Woman’s Day special featuring LW faves Gilan, Piney Gir, Arch Femmesis and bill toppers ARXX in what might well be one of you final chances to catch them at a small London venue, before they permanently move up to bigger rooms that they would already have been playing by now but for lockdown. You can follow all of these – and all of those who played The Piper – on just about any social medium or check out and hopefully buy their music on Bandcamp…
LOUD WOMEN 