Blood Red Shoes @ The Mean Fiddler, London, Saturday 17/02/07 – reviewed for gigwise.com
The drums are thrashing, the guitar charging: in short Blood Red Shoes evokes Elastica. And there’s a fair bit of Sonic Youth noisenik in there too.
Despite the gloriously brutal attack on the senses – they were famously asked by a fan for his money back, after his girlfriend fainted at one of their gigs – this good-looking duo is one of indie’s most humble: reluctant starlets no less. Guitarist Laura-Mary Carter is tentatively willing her audience to be moved by her and drummer Steven Ansell’s edgy punk. Then she starts doing what she often tells the music press she does: shouts. And rather menacingly for such a demure-looking lass. You tell ‘em girl.
If the vocal style is caustic, it’s not lyrically delicate, and in this post-Arctic Monkeys landscape of witty wordsmithing, this may hold the band back.
It’s not all scream though: Ansell’s vocals are as good as his drumming and are stronger than Carter’s. But this is not to denigrate Carter: she does the angsty shouting thing very well and he’s more suited to melody.
Impressive is that even after taking the life out of their instruments, they’re still singing in harmony, grinning at each other now – the reluctancy at the outset is endearing, and this kind of chemistry by the set’s close ticks the onstage presence box.
Elastica’s greatest hit was also their most melodious – and this is where Blood Red Shoes needs to chuck some of that egregious energy.
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