The Noisettes @ The ICA

Noisettes at ICA Review

0/5
Bands: Noisettes
Venue: ICA
Gig: The Noisettes @ The ICA
Gig date: 29th January 2007
Posted on 25th June 2007 by bennyboy

When The Noisettes stride onto stage they do so with utmost confidence. Not only are they so hotly-tipped they could be used to solder girders together but it's an end of tour, hometown show and family and friends are thick on the ground. Drummer Jamie Morrison's Jewfro looks bigger than ever as he strolls to his stool. This may be a result of the plane the band were travelling on just days before being struck by lightning, causing them to live up to their name in quite a panic stricken manner. Guitarist Dan Smith looks like a post hippy, MC5 revolutionary and as they thrash out a primeval garage surf punk riff, the star of the show takes to the stage. Shingai is obviously no stranger to the freaky dressing-up box vibe at the cool end of the rock'n'roll spectrum; the genuinely exciting, transcendent and rebellious end of the scale away from The Paddingtons, The View and the rest of the sponsored by Next For Men dullards. She is resplendent in a leather waistcoat and a tutu and looks like the DJ from "The Warriors" from the waist up and Poly Styrene from X-Ray Spex from waist down. The sound, at first, is invigorating. They play some straight up blues rock in the manner of Cream, allowing Smith to flex his soloing skills. The gig is essentially a high octane romp through last year's "What's The Time Mr Wolf" album. So early on we get an indie-punk version of "Don't Give Up" that delays gratification so much it's almost quite saucy. The boys pump out the rhythm (guitar and drums) while Shingai seems to take forever strapping her bass on. When she finally kicks in, the throb is so deep you can feel stress fractures occurring all over your rib cage. The Noisettes know they'd be little more than a very good pub band if they didn't have something to vary the repertoire, and occasionally they sound like The Slits and then The BellRays and then even The Long Blondes. This said though, rather than always being a band who can combine elements of other genres skilfully to produce new sounds, they stray into the territory of the pastiche occasionally and by the time we reach the sheer brilliance of the Motorhead go Doo Wop jivecore of "Sister Rosetta", you're pretty much happy they're winding things up less than an hour after they began. by John Doran

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