Review: The Lounge Kittens, Exchange

“Does anyone here like Metallica?”

There’s a huge roar of enthusiasm from the packed crowd. Careful what you wish for, though. Here comes the jauntiest, most foot-tapping cover of Sad But True that you’ll ever hear. Stripped of its menace and crushing powerchords by shimmying, sequinned Southampton harmony trio The Lounge Kittens, James Hetfield’s exploration of the darker side of human nature undergoes a total transformation, like a furious, toothsome wild beast tamed to become an adorable domestic pet. It’s a fine example of what the Kittens do best, using radical arrangements to tease out witty alternative meanings from familiar metal, pop-punk and occasional hip-hop songs.

Legend has it that Red Kitten (Jenny Deacon) and Blue Kitten (Timia Gwendoline) met and bonded during a production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company, later recruiting choir chum Pink Kitten (Zan Lawther) to unleash the Lounge Kittens on a curious, faintly alarmed world. With gigs at Glastonbury, Download and the Edinburgh festivals under their collective spangly belt, plus high-profile supports with Steel Panther and Status Quo (“Some of the stuff I’ve heard you girls do is better than wanking,” Francis Rossi has remarked, approvingly) and now a crowd-funded debut album (Sequins and C-Bombs), their career is beginning to take off with sold-out shows across the country.

Andrew W.K.’s Party Hard sets the mood, while the riotous silliness at the heart of System of a Down’s Bounce is mercilessly extracted to turn it into something akin to a children’s party anthem. Steel Panther’s Gloryhole is introduced as their most romantic song – and if there’s something a trifle meta about doing a parody of a parody, the gusto with which the Kittens sing “I don’t wanna know/Who’s sucking my dick today” disarms any objections. A couple of numbers are played reverentially: Love Is Only a Feeling and the singalong-prompting Africa, which is so lovely that it makes you want to go and dig out that old copy of Toto IV.

The Kittens deviate from the harmony trio and keyboard format just once with House of Pain’s Jump Around, during which they bravely create their own loop live on stage. This requires the air conditioning to be switched off and everyone to keep absolutely quiet. At first, it seems as though it’s going to collapse into disaster, but they pull it off magnificently after just one false start.

Band intros provide them with the opportunity to hurl disgraceful, slanderous insults at one another, derived from the delightful world of social media (Red Kitten is the Kitten most likely to be a screamer, apparently, while Blue Kitten is most likely to be a man). Meanwhile, ongoing wardrobe malfunctions suggest that their shiny new costumes could wind up looking rather threadbare by the end of this tour, judging by the rate at which these are shedding sequins all over the audience.

Scattered throughout the set, a trio of rapid-fire medleys offer something of a pop quiz challenge to the nerdy among us. For the record, this reviewer performed miserably during the pop-punk one (though in my feeble defence, I recognised Girl All the Bad Guys Want and Teenage Dirtbag) and a little better during the Prodigy mash-up, but triumphed during the set-closing Download medley, which took us on a journey from Kiss (Calling Dr. Love) to Argent (God Gave Rock’n’Roll to You) via Motley Crue (Dr. Feelgood), Judas Priest (Breaking the Law), Faith No More (Epic), Thunder (Dirty Love) and even DragonForce (Through the Fire and Flames).

It’s all too easy to whinge about stuff they left out (no Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Poison, I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing or that splendid Rammstein medley), but – hey – better to have an embarrassment of riches than a paucity of material.

All photos by Mike Evans

Read more: Metal & Prog Picks: October 2016