Bruise me, baby!

Naughty boys making wicked noise. There’s a blueprint for a blerry good experience.

The Dirty Skirts CD Launch

The skirts lifted the hem of their debut album at the Biscuit Mill on 01 March. If you were there, word up for testy taste! If you weren’t, what a waste. They delivered a bit more than the usual subtle smashing of sweet sound …

Fans weren’t quite prepared for the overlords of underthings, I think. Myspace muppets might have been a bit surprised by the point of departure that is “On A Stellar Bender”. But they were a nice crowd, mild mannered and mildly wild. The Skirts, of course, are not.

It wasn’t only their quintessential rocking, bubblegum fun they treated us to. The launch was the perfect platform for them to point out that they’ve got more up their musical sleeves than their Indy-Pop notoriety might suggest. You don’t realise how serious they are about having fun and making music. Whether Jeremy made that point better by belting out his bad, beatific ballads or by leapfrogging face first onto the stage is not quite clear. But the crowd loved it. The boys upped the edge a notch or two. They egged on the ante. And that’s the thing with the Skirts. They’re dirty, but you don’t see the blood.

For expectant fashionistas, it was a lowkey lashing of suspenders and skinny jeans. No black tape and eyeliner this night. For jaded music fans, it was a pleasant spit in the face. Sure, they make you bop. They make you hop. They have their very own jolly, oversized bunny. That’s what we like about them. But this night they also made us moan and hum. Underneath it all, where it counts, they might be here for the party (hell, they are the party) but the music has The Dirty Skirts by the balls.

Beyond their crowd rocking renditions of Feeling The Pressure and Homewrecker, there were moments fuelled with restful emo, acoustic riffs to make music whores spread wide, and occasions that called for a very different kind of last.fm labelling. Mm. I like being surprised.

They’ll go places, and they’ll do it in (their) style.

Glad to be able to add divine to my list of D words for the skirts. Dirty, divine… drat, I don’t have any others. Dirty and divine. Let’s leave it at that. Till the next time they show us their panties.

Missed the show? Watch the slide show

Pics : Simon De Haast

(Btw, the ol’ market looks lovely dressed up in a bar and stage and lots of beautiful people. But if you want it to sound right, make sure you get the best soundman in the city, coz it aint an easy space to mix into.)

SHU - it's not my first time

omg. mm.

SHU ate my evening.

Memory is funny thing and Summer is a sunny thing. It's easy enough to remember the beach at this time of year (sunset, swim, sand...sigh), but when you realize you forgot what you did last winter... then things get a bit tricky.

I’m talking about my new love, here. Whose name rhymes with sjoe, shoe and shoo!

Namely : SHU. as it were.(i wonder wottit means)

i was drooling and gushing over my keyboard about my new faves (tack tack drool) last week at wek. (wek? - no, don't get me started again) and to Everybody i met . "SHU this, SHU that, must see SHU, na na na." my new SHU. (which is good, coz i already ate all my other ones, such is the lucrative lameness of writing about live music) and so on. the songs wouldn't leave my head. mySpace made a lot of dosh from me lastweek, yessiree. (zit true that mySpace chews non-paying users’ bandwidth? isn't that illegal? unethical???)

Then I went to Mercury (it might be gatdonker, but its got great sound when the right monitor man is around) to see them. and hey SHU wow. it was deja vu. i've seen that sound breaking the air before. I’ve felt it. but I forgot. Because we hear with our eyes too?

which begs the question. why didn't i remember them by their sound alone when i was raping mySpace? where do sight and sound join? (I'll answer that in another missive)

it's something about live performance that gels an experience. Galvanizes it, even. Evidently.

SHU at mercury on Friday.

They are tight as a tit’s tart. And they make a small stage shiver. Liquid fire or something. Be swallowed. Be chewed. Be washed up on the shores of your own exorcism. Be inspired and hammered. It is heavy, melodic rock. But it’s not as heavy as Tonight We Die (rock? i need to ask a few questions about this word). Their vocalist has a lady's whinney to her - ag, i mean his voice which is odd for a man with such a large presence, and the bassist looks happy, jiggy, even, which is odd for a bassist. The drummer is the inbetween mc, entertaining the crowds with a steady stream of quips and quirks from his unattainable elevation. Which is odd for a drummer. - aren't they usually the silent, sexy ones? allinall, their oddness makes for a few moments of absolute catharsis. and no, they didn't play my favourite song(cocoon). it was the bassist's fault.

Lots of guitars. Lots of lovely noise. Lots of leaping around and none of the clichés. Unless mad, talented musicians with obedient instruments are becoming clichés. i hope so.

One (beautiful) friend (really, she is superbly beautiful) mentioned that they sound bit too much like the Muse for her liking. As a self-confessed forgetaholic and rock virgin who only discovered A Perfect Circle last week (sies, I know), I must say, it made little difference to me. SHU came first and this is not my first time. I'm going to have to get their album.

Anachronism is a funny thing. It puts that age-old question asunder. (no! not “do you want to sleep with me?”. The other one) Never mind whether the chicken or the egg came first. It's what cracks em that counts.

SHU - kiss my rapture

just discovered SHU.

it took three bars, and i was in love. it's like that with real rock - it doesn't take any getting used to. (it doesn't take any prisoners either.) it's a quick victory. painless. the love is there. the pain, too. the power. it grabs me somewhere between my groin and my third eye. and pulls everything out. love. pain. p o w e r.

but fuck what i say. sample them for yourselves:

SHU on myspace

and watch this space...