Girls @ Scala, Feb 23rd.
Posted by: nick
Girls won us over hook, line and sinker last year with their heartfelt West Coast pop and occasional but startlingly convincing forays into shoegaze. All was and is accompanied by Christopher Owens’ tales of love, always love. Among those captivated by the band’s debut were the NME who made the band headliners of one of their NME Awards Tour shows despite no actual award. So what would the kids think? Would there be any there?
Our appreciation for Girls’ set was always going to be heavily biased and we quickly remembered almost every word of their material. For maximum enjoyment though these laid back songs require prior listening or at least the ability to immediately place oneself on the San Francisco level. It’s only slightly surprising then to smell Mary Jane in the house. It’s only slightly more surprising to hear excited participation from the majority of the dancefloor during singles like opener ‘Laura’ and ‘Lust For Life’. It seems the cat is largely out of the bag these days as far as Girls go and the kids think they’re alright.
Christopher, with his now familiar Rickenbacker, and fellow Girls linchpin and bass player Chet JR White are joined tonight by now long time drummer Garett Godard, and two new members, Matthew Kallman on keys and guitarist Ryan Lynch who seems like an adept replacement for his predecessor. The resulting sound is a densely layered one that exudes Californian sunshine. There’s simple melodies galore but an astonishing attention to texture and details to go with it. A now regular set highlight is the slowly escalating fuzz of heart-wrenching single ‘Hellhole Ratrace’ transcending into the full on My Bloody Valentine furore of the superb ‘Morning Light’ without time to draw breath. It doesn’t come much better.
Christopher’s out and out drug song ‘Substance’ tells us how to take away the pain but then finishes with the sobering line “If I had love, I’d give it all away”. No matter where Girls songs go they always come back to that core subject. With a ‘Darling’ here and a ‘Ghost Mouth’ there Girls make the night rightfully their own. In culmination comes an encore of the slightly tongue in cheek, distorted surf swagger of ‘Big Bad Mean Motherfucker’ and the love letter to his city and of course a Girl that is ‘Life In San Francisco’.
Somewhere amongst all of that though we’re treated to “the best song I’ve ever written”. I’m reliably informed it’s called ‘Lysandre 7′and guess what? It’s about love.
You won’t hear us complaining.
