Review | Spinnerette

Little Miss B, 16 August 2009...

Spinnerette : The Electric Ballroom, Camden : 16 July 2009

Fury does not even come close to describing my feelings at having a gig ruined by some annoying little pleb. I don’t often pay for shows (I don’t care if you hate me – there are a multitude of reasons for this: poverty, friends in bands, general shystering skills), so when I do fork out my hard-earned dollar, it means I really really want to see said band play. So one can only imagine my pure disgust and rampant wrath at enduring the entire Spinnerette Electric Ballroom show, positioned precariously to the right of an emaciated twiglet intent on impaling my face on her ever-flailing elbows. Her towering sloth of a boyfriend seemed oblivious to the quasi-epileptic fit his beau appeared to be having, and despite several knocks to the chops, managed to spend the night with his arms lovingly wrapped round the little Mexican jumping bean. I, on the other hand, got a little annoyed. I might have verbally expressed this annoyance. But was I about to let this hyped-up beanpole ruin my first ever experience at seeing Brody live on stage? Was I heck…

Playing in London only a handful of times since releasing their highly anticipated self-titled debut album, Spinnerette is the brainchild of one Miss Brody Dalle of Distillers fame. I have long been a Distillers fan and criminally never got to see them play live; queue infantile excitement upon learning of Spinnerette’s London shows.

Apart from the venue being a revolting sweat box (the skin on my back that until that point had been slightly raised third-degree sunburn, turned into full-on fist sized popping blisters due to the humidity - yum) and not really digging support act Freeland, this was one of the best shows I’ve been to in a long time.

This was Brody doing what Brody does best.

As an album, Spinnerette has had mixed reviews. Personally, I am a big fan. This band has a completely different sound to The Distillers so it seems a redundant exercise to spend the next week comparing the two. It also seems a bit pointless to further discuss the influence of husband (and officially Annette’s Perfect Man) Josh Homme on her songwriting as so many other journalists seem keen to do. Instead, I can simply say this is an accomplished album. Having total creative control has afforded Spinnerette an unprecedented level of indulgence that has previously been lacking in Brody’s songwriting. There’s a real freedom, and celebratory nature to this record. There are some killer tracks here, and Brody didn’t let us down on stage.

Photo by Unleash the Bats. See more on Flickr


Distorting a Code sounded infinitely better live than recorded, Sex Bomb and Ghetto Love were just as driving and anthemic as the album promised, and Cupid was a real crowd-pleaser.

Brody seemed to relish performing without the guitar (she only played on 3 or 4 songs), falling around the stage and going hell for leather on her vocals (the next day, she tweeted about her knackered voice, and consequently had a node-removal op.) She didn’t address the crowd much, and this slightly detached quality really lent itself to her more grown up, less confrontational sound. Her band were intense, creating a wall of virtually impermeable sound through which her vocals triumphantly fought. Everything I expected and then some.

So, I would like to apologise for threatening to break that little girl’s arm. It was a brilliant show, and in spite of bag-o-bones’ troublesome limbs, we had ourselves a darned good time.

Twiglet, I’d like to make it up to you.
Let me buy you a sandwich.





http://www.spinnerettemusic.com/
http://www.myspace.com/spinnerettemusic


To read other reviews by Little Miss B, click below:
Laura Marling
L*dyGarden