Music / post punk
Review: Petrol Girls, The Exchange
Punch On! played a discordant set of about nine songs, Sean Addicott and Isaac Windsor shrouded in half light and battering the fuck out of the material. Royal Blood and The White Stripes are arguably the mainstream’s benchmarks for guitar & drum duos, but these two fellas are a million miles from the former and a clear century of space away from the latter. Visceral playing, stop / start tempos, these were simple tunes wrapped up in complex structures full of scuzzy, (sort of disturbing) ambient passages and vocals delivered to the point of hoarseness. And beyond. Relentless drumming and guitar abuse with no quarter, the launch pad may have been hardcore or post hardcore but the adventurous disregard for convention and stylistic dead ends took the material to a new place.
The material was full of piss and vinegar, packed with power and delivered with unflinching commitment. Busy, busy, busy drums kept the set anchored allowing guitar extrapolations – non-solos, scrabbling chords and spidery riffs – as tunes blurred into each other. With no discernible hooks and harsh, indecipherable vocals, this was music experienced through the gut. The band previewed three new skronky, harsh pummelling cuts destined for a fund raiser (for the admirable Solidarity Not Silence case), introduced with indignation. Defensive About Being on Fire whipped up a storm but ended with a squall of noise. Leaving the stage without comment one couldn’t help but think “How the hell are they gonna capture that on tape”?
is needed now More than ever
Four piece local outfit SickOnes played a more conventional set, but easily matched the power of Punch On!, with added furiosity. Fuck off fat bass, merciless drums and chainsaw guitar blended and fought each other in a fresh take on hardcore. The self-proclaimed “dancing band” had the crowd moving from opening number Ego Death, a slow build up before the tune was truly unleashed.
It took a song and a half before the band was at full pelt and then they ramped it up, a constant blur of motion. Powered by Andy’s breathless drumming, the songs were indeed eminently danceable. New boy George supplied the four-string groove and Charlie sprayed riffs and solos across the stage. Kirstie, on vocals, threw herself into the material: powerful, and with a decent range, she lived the lyrics.
The material was in your face…right in your face…but in a really satisfying way. There were time changes and tempo mixes, but always in service of the songs, a million miles away from showboating – straight to the point. Lyrically the personal was political and the political was personal, with words drawn from experience. Kirstie was wholesome in her praise of the headliners and anxious we should all check out Solidarity Not Silence, her boundlessly energetic performance leaving her struggling to get the words out.
With a cadre of fans in the crowd, this was a well-received set – first timers soon enticed into the pit, which ebbed and flowed as the tunes picked up pace and slowed down. The band worked it hard, headliner energy and commitment, and were rewarded with a rambunctious response.
The material didn’t stray far from genre tropes but was played with passion and attack. That said, The Step and Exit Years (particularly) pushed the boundaries to excellent effect. If the band can continue to push themselves with the material, they have the energy, chops and appeal to break out of this city and leave the competition behind.
Petrol Girls didn’t so much as play a gig as detonate. Liepa Kuraitė, Ren Aldridge, Joe York and Zock packed three hours of energy into a one-hour set and a zillion ideas into a dozen or so songs, all fuelled by equal amounts of righteous anger and empathy for their audience along with the wider community.
Of course, Petrol Girls are branded as a political band but here’s the odd thing. Their “politics” are simply a demand for equality, for justice, for compassion and empathy, and for basic rights. Surely those things should just be part of the normal human condition and our daily discourse? Clearly not given the shit-show that is the 21st century, but bands like this are helping to raise the issues and shine a light on far too many shocking situations. And this band did it with a dozen or more tunes, that sparked mass dancing and singing in a joyfully loud combustion of music and crowd.
No doubt cynics will say singing about things won’t change anything, but Petrol Girls didn’t just sing about the ills of this world. Having opened the set with a demand for women, LGBT and others to come down the front, Aldridge was a vigilant pit boss. She was constantly monitoring the dancefloor, diving in at one stage to ensure the enjoyment of the crowd and ruthlessly ejecting anyone exhibiting “macho bullshit”. She also took every opportunity to encourage the crowd to get involved, to get active – supported by a wealth of material at the merch and practical suggestions. She also played a recoding from the day’s climate protests, the band having been out…getting involved.
It would be churlish to single out individual songs as highlights, but a thrilling Big Mouth not only blew up the crowd, but its sentiments resonated, with plenty shouting along with the Poly Styrene sample. Opener The Sound was ambitious (and as successful live as on the latest LP Cut & Stitch), a rousing call to arms and blistering statement of intent. Touch Me Again was undoubtedly the most popular number, an excoriating attack on sick attitudes and actions alike.
Whilst Aldridge dominated proceedings, headbanged like a maniac and owned the crowd, she was only able to do so thanks to the musicians on stage. Business-like, relatively static and (sometimes) serious, they played the arse out of the songs. Well, Zonk may have been necessarily static, but he flailed the bejesus out of his kit. The songs were propelled by his beats, yet the slower interludes were equally mighty, and it wasn’t just percussive. Plenty of intriguing fills and flourishes amongst the pounding rhythms.
Joe York looked studious at times, six strings of pure focus. Inventive playing shorn of cliché he distilled decades of punk, thrash, rock, metal and even funk guitar into an original style. He played with purpose rather than abandon; played with skill and precision and was lost in the music throughout. The occasional grin broke through and he patrolled his corner of the stage with resolution.
Liepa Kuraitė’s bass was woven into the songs with dexterity, delightfully flash free she not only locked in with Zock and underpinned the tunes during York’s solos, but she also took the musical lead more than once. Her backing vocals, like York’s, counterpointed Aldridge’s leads adding colour and contrast. In fact both were more co-vocalists at times.
New tune No Love for a Nation dropped in seamlessly with the older and curtrent material alike, sounding like a step forward and yet still sounding like the Petrol Girls. Great vocal arrangement on that one. Naive was a triumphant set closer leaving the crowd baying for the inevitable encore. Naturally this was a tune written from the perspective of an orgasmic werewolf keen on committing arson on government buildings, which would kill everyone except maintenance staff and cleaners. Me neither. But it was a stunning climax. Ahem.
The great thing about Petrol Girls is that they aren’t just a band using music to preach, educate or convert their audience. Set aside the lyrical content and you have a band pushing the boundaries of what punk / hardcore (call it what you will) can deliver, and they’re doing it better on each release. This set showed the band can take their recordings and infuse them with pulse pounding, life affirming energy and thrill a crowd. The band don’t just deserve a bigger platform for their views, they deserve it for their music. Do your bit, buy some records, go and see them, and if you can, follow their advice and get involved with the wider world before it’s too late.
Petrol Girls: The Exchange: Friday, 20 September 2019
All pix by Phil Riley
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