Girls On Top Form
New York trio Vivian Girls are definitely on the way to success, packing out Glasgow’s basement venue Stereo. Their frothy, fun, psychedelic pop rock goes down fabulously with plenty of dancing and merriment breaking out amongst the audience. The band are instantly endearing with their down-to-earth attitude; they perform their own soundcheck seconds before starting their set, reference a local record store and engage in a minimal amount of slightly cute banter, “This song is a love song”, bassist Kickball Katy announces simplistically. The set kicks off with, ‘All The Time’, the opener from the band’s eponymous album; it’s a frenetic rush of vocal harmonies, brash guitars and breakneck drums that probably sums up the band’s ethos pretty well. These impulsive, gritty tunes that prove the girls can really rock with the guitar wielding frontwomen coming together centre stage, barely able to see their instruments for a mass of flailing blonde hair. Drummer Frankie Rose is probably the real star of the show though with her fierce percussive stylings giving each song a distinctive character and steering the light-hearted, 60’s style harmonies towards something a little darker.
Tunes like ‘Second Date’ simply embrace the shoegaze, Spector-esque comparisons; this is a sweet, sugary love song that’s fun and easy to sway along to, providing a break from the fractious aggressive tunes. The girls seem to have got their banter down to a t and be genuinely pleased at the great turn-out, however the fact that many of their lines were also used the last time they played Glasgow perhaps indicates a slight nervousness when engaging with a larger audience. In any case they come across well, albeit more comfortable when playing than chatting to the audience. During the last song they skilfully swap instruments, proving themselves to be multi-talented, as well as crafters of fabulous songs. Make sure you catch this trio on tour as they’re bound to remind you why the 60’s were so sweet, or at least get you dancing.