Sunday 5 February 2012

Wild Flag @ The Electric Ballroom London 1st Feb 2012



It's fair to say I have been listening to Wild Flag's debut self titled album pretty much non stop since I bought it, and the more I listened to it the more I fell in love with their unique sound. It has the best album I have bought for quite some time. When I first read about them, and realised they were in essence a Riot Grrrl supergroup comprising of members of Sleater Kinney, Helium and The Minders (as well as the other bands they all had been part of too) and of course I had high expectations! I wasn't disappointed. As soon as I saw they had a gig in London, I had to witness it! I just hoped I wouldn't be let down when I saw them performing.

The support act was Peggy Sue who I had seen previously as a Ladyfest in their former carnation as Peggy Sue and the Pirates. Their music is very bluesy and folk influenced rock.

You could feel the anticipation in the packed out room as Peggy Sue finished their set and we waited for Wild Flag to emerge. When they did they did, they did in style starting off with 'Black Tile'. The set consisted of the entire album and a few new tracks. But Wild Flag don't just go through the motions of playing song after song, oh no, this is one band I highly recommend, in fact I COMMAND you go and see live as soon as you can, because even though the album is amazing, it really makes it special to hear it live. The band put so much energy into their performance, jumping around the stage, doing AC/DC style guitar moves. They also extended 'Racehorse' so it had a Jimi Hendrix style breakdown in the middle with a mass crowd clap along to the bridge "pony up pony up", ending with a very rock n roll finish.

They of course ended with single 'Romance' before they returned to do an encore that featured covers of Television's "See No Evil" and The Patti Smith Group's "Ask The Angels".
I left the venue feeling elated, feeling I had witnessed the evolution and resurrection of the Riot Grrrl Movement.


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