The Neutrinos/ Beech/ The Horrors @ The Water Rats 13/09/04

Out of the darkness, The Horrors emerge, armed with sharp scuzzy rock and classic 90s indie boy/ girl harmonies. A likeable bubbly bunch, their sound is aided by the synthesiser action over on the left, moving into stop/start new wave territory at times - certainly, two thirds of the way through the sound is cranked up to 11 and the bass starts driving through the floor and into the pits of our stomachs, the guitar and keys colliding to form fuck-off great bullets while the nicely formed harmonies keep reign of the pop sensibilities.

If The Horrors were paddling around and offering us short glimpses into their sounds, then Beech completely blew them out of the water with a massive tsunami of 70s retro and smooth lounge core pop-rock. The lead vocalist looks like an airbrushed Janis Joplin, all purpled up and feather boa’d and immediately proving to be this band’s main asset. Luckily the other guys were up to speed and matched her with slow funk bass and smooth rhythms with an added splash of slide guitar. The mood is undoubtedly that of a smoky, dimly lit men’s club, where the performance is totally blues and overtly suggestive. Making our skin shiver with an intense velocity, the singer belts out seductive lines such as ‘I’m gonna get down on my knees and watch you rise’, while maintaining a lighthearted air owing to the amount of grinning she shares with the audience.

Ok, returning to my aquatically themed analogies one last time, The Neutrinos are a band that if you were swimming in at the deep end, they would bite you on the arse just for being there. No kidding. Describing themselves as a ’female Nick Cave fronting Queens of the Stone Age’, you already have an inkling of what lies ahead. An understated James Bond movie feel beginning soon morphs into a theatrical and dramatic breed of garage rock. Against a backdrop of morbid and dystopian illustrations they set an almost apocalyptic tone to launch new album Sick Love. Once in full swing, their version of new art rock successfully crosses the Breeders’ sense of sonic space and off beat rhythm, together with pop ‘woo hoos’ punctuating the otherwise threatening delivery of words, the singer Karen’s eyes fiercely twinkling. Again, it’s the vocalist that steals the show, this one a complicated and twisted hybrid of Siobhan Fahey and Karen O with her faux menace and her open legged hip swingin’ stance on stage. Here To You throws us full throttle guitar edginess coupled with squelching electronica before the refrain of Murder scares the shit outta the front row caught in Karen’s gaze. Scrubber (originally the band name) kicks in with Lust For Life-drums attacking with a full on assault on the senses, paring down to basic beats and half spoken half sung words then whamming straight into a swirling pit of craziness, ‘leave me, I want another’, the intermittent wild screams building up to the inevitable crescendo before dumping us for the night.

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