This was the launch show for The Soap Girls new single Breathe and the launch for the bands 2022 world tour that continues for most of the rest of the year. We arrived just after the first band Mea Culpa had finished, but the friends who had come to see them said that they were good.
The first band we saw where We Are One who grabbed everyone's attention by opening there set with the bands lead guitarist hitting a power chord waiting about 10 seconds before hitting it again and after about 6 repeats the singer ran out and the rest of the 5-piece band launched into the rap metal of the opener that I guess was I'm An Outlaw, they were tight taut aggressive and totally captivating.
Then the bands singer Aidan Brennan and one half of the Brennan twins announced the next song was We Are From Doncaster and the way he said it sounded like they had crawled out of the meanest Ginnels in the Doncaster equivalent of Compton while the song sounded like it was a cross between Rage Against The Machine and Boo Ya Tribe as they sang about being smashed on barm cakes again or summat like that.
They seem to like songs with We Are in the title, We Are Free was next with a crushing riff and far more poppy lyrics than expected, this was bouncy good fun, before they re-write Right Here Right Now into their own anthem for unity and having a great time that seemed to be what everyone was having.
We Are Lost Boys has them hoping to turn into Christian Slater and Keifer Sutherland to haunt the Doncaster wastelands while doing battle against the Doncaster Spinners, it has enough of a wink in it's eyes as Bud Brennan's bass shook the room. I Wanna Fly Away kept up the pace and intensity as they crushed all before them while sounding like they should be on in the middle of the afternoon at Download or Sonisphere or similar rock festivals winning thousands of new fans.
The band set out their credo on We Make Our Own Luck and this has a bit of Bodycount about it, as it sought to crush us with another thunderous riff and precision drumming. The bands' theme song We Are One hammers home the message that we should all get along and prejudice is wrong.
They closed with the rather anthemic We Are Rock & Roll, which wasn't strictly true, as they are far more rap metal or hip-hop metal, but that would be far harder to sing along too. They were great fun and must be seen live.
How good We Are One were made the next band All The Others Are Dead, Steve's job all the harder and sadly for them starting the set with sound problems, as the lead guitar lead failed didn't help them, that and unlike the two bands, they went on between, they lacked a strong image and had they been on a different bill the bands take on schmindie might have worked better.
To be honest just a few days later I don't remember much about them other than the girl singer sounded like she wanted to be in Sleater Kinney and the lead guitarist thought he was great, but never did much to stand out, the best of their songs was the one I guess was called Eat My Words.
As for the part of the set when they changed instruments and the guitarist played drums and the bass player sang really should be left out of the set. The closing number Generation Zoo had more to offer than most of the rest of the set but really, they should have been the first band on the bill not the third one.
During the break I had a quick chat with Mie from The Soap Girls who was friendly and looking forward to playing for us. They took a while to get going but from the opener Wasted that saw both Mie and Mille lose the overcoats they had been wearing and Mille struggling to keep her tiara on top of her frightwig they were clearly here to have some fun and get the crowd going.
|
Johnny seemed to be about some poor sap who didn't quite know what hit him, and the as ever scantily clad but very glamorous and sparkly Soap Girls had him in a whirl. Mille introduced the next song as being about having a dry mouth after taking drugs, it had their usual potent mix of sex and Raw rock to mix the drugs with, while as always keeping a smile on your face.
In My Skin made good points that we should all be comfortable in our skins no matter what we look like and no one should get offended at anyone else's flesh, well looking around at the audience that was happily singing along they got the message across.
Mille put her bass down for Demons and while that made the band sound a little thinner it allowed for more antics between the two sisters while the bands drummer just kept everything under control.
You Don't Wanna has a good list of things you might wish to avoid and a good spunky guitar solo.
Well, they have to have a song about being Crazy that went down pretty well and then they did one of their best-known songs Societies Rejects that saw Mille dancing topless and encouraging us all to treat it like its normal behavior and never to reject anyone for something so petty when wars are still raging.
Original Sin is a song made to be sung on good Friday surely, they then made sure we all knew the next song was called Psycho and while not being the most Psychotic song of that name it did go mental. I think the next song was Kill Breed that seemed to be an angrier rant of a song with more rock-solid drums, even as they threatened to sell the drummers arse if we didn't all spend money at the merch table afterwards.
They closed the show with Breathe the bands new single that came out on Good Friday and was being launched at the show and as Mille put her Bass down it featured crazier dancing and performing than most of the songs.
For the encore they encouraged some of the audience onto the stage to help them sing Bad Bitch and of course to prove what Bad Bitches they are, it was good to see the audience members onstage seemed to range in age from there 20's to 60's. They then finished the show with a ragged version of Sam's On Crack that just left them time to thank us all and encourage us to come and see them again when the tour returns to London in May. This was a fun set, but I did come away from this gig with the feeling that We Are One may have stolen the show.
|
