Spinnerette Shockwaves NME Awards Show
The Islington academy is packed tonight, you can barely move for the girls who want to be her and the guys who would love to be with her. You can literally feel the 2 years worth of anticipation building in the air, many of the fans around me tonight would have been devastated when The Distillers split up in 2007, but finally we are graced with the presence of the one and the only Brody Dalle.
As she walks onto the stage, the crowd go wild to be in relatively close proximity to their idol, “Alright London? You make me feel sick” she exclaims in her signature Melbourne snarl. Its nice to see that she still has the style that many of the room have tried to emulate tonight, her hair is back to black and she is wearing a trademark leather jacket, which she soon discards to reveal a low cut trashed tee. The band have joined her on stage by now as they launch into ‘Valium Knights’ taken from their ‘Ghetto Love EP’ which was released last December. This is followed by ‘Bury My Heart’, which Spinnerette put 110% into, as a band they are faultless but Brody just reminds us why she will always be such an amazing front woman, she puts everything she has got into her performances, rocking out, never missing a beat and all on such a small stage. Brody Dalle fills in a brief break by talking to the audience “How you guy’s doing tonight?” she enquired “It’s good to see you, good to be back in London, it even rained a bit today.” They follow with a song that I don’t recognise, but it is a mixture of heavy guitars with beautiful melodic vocals, is a refreshing change from the high powered, material that they opened with. As the song ends, there is a very brief word from one of her band mates and then all we can hear is her breathing breathlessly, almost teasingly.
We are then treated to a preview of ‘Cupid’…”About killing cupid”, taken from their new album which is set to be released in May. As has been the case all night the audiences attention is captivated by Spinnerette’s front woman, as she takes it back to a more classic rock style vocal, she seems to be completely immersed in the song. The crowd are then given something that they should know in the form of ‘Sex Bomb’, of which a special remix version was released on Valentines Day. It certainly verges more on pop than anything we have ever heard pass from Brody Dalle’s lips before, but the audience love it. This is followed in sharp contrast by ‘Rebellious Palpitations’ but not before Spinnerette gives thanks to the bands who opened for them tonight; Future of The Left and The Chapman Family.
The next track they played from the new album, was open by Brody asking if anyone has or knows what a Wurlitzer is, I had no idea what she was on about, and quite obviously neither did anyone else as she seemed put out that everyone looked perplexed. Just to clarify, a Wurlitzer is an electric piano, which is a key element to their new album.
As the night draws to an end the crowd are elated to hear that Spinnerette will be returning to the UK in May, in support of the release of their album. They play the last song ‘Ghetto Love’ from their EP of the same title. The crowd are pleased to have something that they recognise to sing along to, towards the end of the song Brody Dalle underestimates how much her fans love her, and jumps into the pit, possibly crowd, I’m limited in what I can see from where I’m standing, the fans surge forwards in the hope of grabbing a piece of her, chaos ensues. Urgent shouts can be heard from Brody of “Move back, move back” the whole band seem genuinely worried about the welfare of everyone. By this time the house lights are on, the security are shouting and the roadies are dismantling the equipment, it is a sad ending to an amazing show.
I went along to this gig not knowing what to expect from a new band with only one EP released, I was relieved that they didn’t play any old Distillers tracks as it would have been an insult to themselves, as they are strong enough to go on to amazing things, without cashing in on past fame. If you haven’t heard their EP go buy it from their website: www.spinnerettemusic.com. I can’t wait till May … I’m counting down the days!