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Gig Review

Dum Dum Girls
Brighton, Komedia

Article written by Alex S - Apr 26, 2011

Dum Dum Girls

‘You have something beautiful between your legs that should bring pleasure to millions, yet all you seem able to do is scratch it’. So said Lord Beecham in castigating a touring Russian Cellist some ninety years ago. This could equally have been said about the Dum Dum Girls performance at the Komedia. They have all the right credentials. Ex-Blondie/Go Go’s producers, guest spots by Yeah Yeah Yeah guitarists, tours with Vampire Weekend and MGMT and ‘influences’ as ‘cool’ as the Ronettes, Ramones and Patti Smith. But live this evening there just wasn’t any fizz; or pizzazz; or spark. I can’t remember seeing a band as static or controlled, which projected itself onto the audience who could barely muster a cheer after each song. A generous interpretation might be the crowd was mesmerized by the glimpse of thigh above stocking, but the reality was they were always more or less miserable, and the audience felt the same. I’m convinced bassist Bambi would have leapt from the stage and beaten anyone who dared to dance.

Devoid of excitement, despite kicking up a mighty racket, they replaced this with a ménage of iconography. Part Robert Palmer’s backing singers in ‘Addicted to Love’; part Cruella de Vil. Hilarious though was the wind machine that turned drummer Sandy’s every beat into an advert for John Frieda’s volumising shampoo. If she’d writhed around naked on the floor it would have been a refreshing breath of subtlety. Musically we switched between the overblown drama of Florence and the Machine, the harmonies of the Raveonettes and the pace and drive of the Ramones at their fastest. Of course the ambrosial ghost of C86 looms large in their music, and they can certainly belt out a tune. But even tub-thumpers from their first album such as ‘Jail La La’ and ‘Bhang Bhang I’m a Burnout’, or ‘He Gets Me High’ from the new EP of the same name failed to spark the evening into life. Highlight was the encore, a belting version of the Smiths’ ‘There is a light that never goes out’, which is pretty damning really, cracking though it was. At least they didn’t indulge in the kind of cloying US ‘bonding with the fans’ speak – “You guys are awesome” - that frankly spoilt the last Vivian Girls gig down here. We did get a ‘We love Brighton’ near the end but we’ll let that go.

The songs are good, the band is aesthetically pleasing, and the influences spot on. But it just didn’t happen tonight. Let’s mark it down as a one-off and move on…

Links:
http://www.myspace.com/dumdumgirls