LIVE REVIEW: Hands Off Gretel @ The Louisiana, Bristol
It’s a very balmy evening in Bristol; hot air balloons are drifting lazily through the sky and the waterfront is vibrant with folk having a couple of drinks to bring in the weekend early. At the Louisiana, however, a hundred or so punters have taken the decision to spend their night in the sweaty, upstairs room of a pub; thank goodness the air con is working. It’s a sold out affair as well, which just goes to show the rising popularity that headliners HANDS OFF GRETEL currently hold; the buzz around them is growing stronger and this is only testament to that.
They’re not the only ones with a bright future: opening act MISS KILL might only just be starting out but they display serious promise; “we’re two sisters and we’re here to tear the room apart”, declares singer and guitarist Alannah Jackson. They’re certainly not short of confidence and they’re not all mouth either – their low-fi grunge isn’t exactly new, but it’s delivered very well and as their set progresses the crowd swells and their response to the siblings gets louder and warmer. They have tunes too: highlights include the raucous Prescriptive Poison and the melancholic Inside Takes, which show MISS KILL’s ability to change up the tempo and still keep things raw and organic. Sure, closing song Pablo Escobar bears a little too much of a resemblance to Smells Like Teen Spirit, but for a band this tender in age, their overall creativity already speaks for itself.
Rating: 7/10
For West Yorkshire outfit AS SIRENS FALL, a sense of being up against it is evident from the beginning. They’re not sticking out like a sore thumb on the bill by any means, but their alt-rock has more in common with the likes of MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE and AFI than NIRVANA and HOLE, meaning it takes a while for them to get properly going – half their set, as a matter of fact. There’s little in the way of substance from the music and vocalist Mikey Lord’s voice sounds awfully thin as well, but then they drop She Runs With the Wolves and from here things pick up considerably. State of the Artiste and closing song Smoke are received enough to ensure the performance as a whole is salvaged, but the sense of how close the band came to an overall trainwreck lingers prominently.
Rating: 6/10
It’s an unassuming beginning from HANDS OFF GRETEL, frontwoman Lauren Tate offering a somewhat meek “Hi guys” into the microphone. The response that greets opening song I Want the World is anything but, however. Opening with five consecutive songs from the album of the same name shows real belief in the new material that the band have created and the room responds in kind, many of whom are well aware of the tracks already. This allows the likes of S.A.S.S and Freaks Like Us to have big sing-a-longs and stand up tall against older material like One-Eyed Girl. They even play a currently unreleased song entitled She Thinks She Is So Rock and Roll which goes down a treat and by the time they’ve closed with Kiss Me Girl, you can gloss over the awkward stage banter and misfire at the end of My Toy.
What cannot be glossed over, though, is that the set feels too comfortable. For all that HANDS OFF GRETEL have going for them, tonight there’s an overriding sense that this is a band more than happy at the level they currently find themselves. Given the ridiculous amount of talent that the quartet possess, one would expect them to play as if they were in front of a crowd ten, perhaps a hundred times bigger than this, bringing an electric vibe and a relentless shockwave of energy. Instead, they give off an air of being content at staying in small venues as long as they sell them out, with no interest in filling out larger clubs and academies. One hopes that this isn’t the case, because tonight it puts a significant dampener on what could have been a stunning performance.
Rating: 7/10
Check out our photo gallery from the night’s action in Bristol from Normandy Photography here:
