A new venue for Betty although it has been open for some time now, a former church nestling in the heart of the Calton/Barras district and but a mere hop from the Ballroom, this looks like it is destined to become a BM place of choice. A handsome building with good sightlines, a balcony and a massive organ (spare the innuendo but it does have some impressive pipes and is a huge erection, oh enough already) at the back of the low stage. The lighting and sound is great, pity that BM missed the support band Pins , they were very good supporting Sleater-Kinney at the ABC in 2014, review is in the itm archives.
So Honeyblood have had quite some year by the looks of it, touring everywhere and album number two out last month, ‘Babes Never Die’, and quite a belter it surely is, on repeat at BM towers since it was released.
The two-piece are onstage sometime after 9.20pm, guitarist and vocalist Stina Tweedale on one side of the stage (left) and drummer Cat Myres stage right. From the first song the almost sold-out audience is enthralled with their garage via Sonic Youth via Sleater-Kinney take on an opening and devastating one/two of ‘Ready For The Magic’ and ‘Love Is A Disease’. They are both from the new album and both sythe through the air like a supercharged couple of Stanley knives, documenting hedonistic lust verging on obsession – amazing. The live versions are pumped up with extra riffing (crunchy) and drumfills – there is just no need for a bass when Stina’s on the prowl, she just does the lot, and then some. The vocals are by turns angry, bolshy but also vulnerable. Stina does a bit of the rock chic thing (“hello Glasgow” etc ) but you have got to give it her, it requires some degree of bottle to get up there and not hide behind a big light show or loads of backing musicians. These songs are half-naked, raw and boy do they rock.
An early tension-breaker occurs when Cat goes off the stage (“I need another beer”) while Stina quips (“she is always doing this”) to apparently return for song three, an oldie (‘Choker’), then the real Cat returns for a body double moment with the rogue drummer, who turns out to be support band PINs drummer dressed up as her – tada, interchangeable drummer joke! Some of the audience may have wondered WTF was that all about, well it was the last night of the tour and at least one major prank should be permitted, they certainly had me and BM thinks pretty much everyone else.
From then on it was basically the rest of the album, played with menaces! (they played every track during the gig) There was a wee song for the girl on the merch stand (“Hazel”, with embarrassing couplets of verse) then some further crushing, bruising riffs, anguished lines at times (“I was wasted”) and at other times confessional (“I wanted to hurt you”) but between songs they were chipper and witty, both of them riffing off each other, clearly chuffed at the venue and turnout – “the shitty Chase and Status” one of them said at one point, haha. No the incredible Honeyblood, IBHO! Songs like ‘Hey Stellar’ and ‘Sister Wolf’ are more than just riff-driven, they are almost Gothic but also recall sugar-sweet contrasting girl groups of the Spector era, through Blondie and right up to Chvrches, all very good company to keep…
2016 has been a year in which female singers on the Glasgow and Scottish music scene have made themselves increasingly difficult to ignore with some of the best tracks of the year. BM is not going to be so patronising as to bracket them together but let it be said that this has been a generally good thing. There are too many representations of female artists as either eye candy or whingey and “too emotional” pigeonholed into one or other category. This cannot really be done with a band like Honeyblood, there is raw talent, emotion and attitude in plenty, also they bloody rock out in an epic fashion…and why the fuck not?
At this point Cat revealed their “secret” – a video for title track of the album ‘Babes Never Die’ was going to be shot, like, NOW! So the audience, already pretty lively, went completely mental during this song, another flipping anthem, the album just gets better on each listen, they really excelled themselves and had a good few jumpers-around for the pictures.
Going off stage and coming back on was discussed and dismissed as “lying, and we would never lie to you, Glasgow!” – so they played two oldies for the last ones, ‘Killer Bangs’ and ‘Super Rat’, great blasts although BM cannot help thinking that the new songs are a marked improvement. The gig ended with more filming and audience mentalness, the end of a big year and onwards and upwards for the future, BM just hopes that they don’t lose the intimacy of a venue like this.