Vivian Girls – London Brixton Windmill

Brooklyn trio play first-ever UK show

The problem with arriving at venues at eight when the act you’ve come to seen isn’t on ‘til some hours later: you do find yourself getting outside of a few.

So, it’s with beer swilling around belly that my body’s hit full-frontal by the wall of noise erected by Brooklyn rockers Vivian Girls. Skull rattled, senses scrambled, time’s taken to recompose myself; ultimately a realisation surfaces, that the all-girl outfit are rather remarkably delivering their self-titled debut album as heard on CD.

Which is, to say the least, a disappointment – ‘Vivian Girls’, released via the excellent In The Red and reviewed HERE, is a great record and will rightly be recognised as such in a fair few year-end lists, but nobody wants to hear the record when watching its makers live. Perhaps it’s nerves – tonight is the trio’s first-ever show away from US soil – but something’s stopping Vivian Girls from edging outside of an established comfort zone – where Mary Chain volume meets Shangri-Las sparkle.

Not that their set isn’t loud. Oh my, it’s loud. Typing this now, every tap of finger on key sparks pain in the ears, residual from an assault the night before. Between the slabs of fuzzy guitar come Cassie Ramone’s sugar-sweet vocals, cutting the fog like that proverbial hot knife through soft animal fat. And punters climb the furniture to get a clear look, too, for it’s worth noting that the band aren’t exactly hard on the eyes. It’s not sexist at all to comment that this isn’t a bad thing to have on your side when it comes to ‘making it’.

Vivian Girls will have better nights than this while in the UK, but for a first-from-the-blocks performance before a sold-out Windmill crowd – bodies are packed tight into the tiny Brixton boozer – this is a decent enough effort. That said, perhaps my middling opinion is influenced by lager as much as it is what was on offer aurally.

Which I can still just about hear, when I stop typing…

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