Black Honey + PINS + Russo
Tonight, Pony Up presents two bands I have been impressed by in the past and one band I have not even heard of, let alone heard.
That new band, Russo are first up. Theirs is a sound that takes a bit of eighties pop, a little new wave and a touch of post-punk before adding a smidge of glam. I am getting a mixed bag of influences from the Pretenders and the Cars to Pat Benatar, Gwen Stefani and even Taylor Swift. Without wishing to damn with faint praise, they are decent enough, there is plenty of energy but it seems a bit contrived, a bit mannered and are just too damned middle of the road for me. A fellow Outliner described ’em as “bang average” and I can’t disagree.
I have seen PINS a times and have always really rated them but there’s been some changes since I last caught them. Faith is still singing but Lois is now playing keys as well as guitar, Kyoko has moved from keys to bass and there is a new drummer (whose name, in an epic fail, I haven’t got). The sound has also developed. What was always a spindly, spikey post-punk sound now packs an electrofunk edge and is bigger - much BIGGER – than I remember. That might be down to the PA here compared to that at the Sound & Vision shows I saw PINS play at what is now the Mash Tun but that can’t be the only reason. The vocal harmonies are glorious and the Lemmy-meets-Hooky bass is magnificently filthy.
If there is anything disappointing about PINS’ set, it is the lack of enthusiasm shown by the crowd. I know Norwich crowds can be (in)famously reserved but honestly, as unfamiliar as this set is, the songs still had me, a resolute dance refusenik, shimmying, shaking and jigging like a loon.
Like PINS, I first caught Black Honey at a Sound & Vision show at the Tun. I was impressed enough to buy some merch. What I remember of the show was that it was proper, old school rock ‘n’ roll with a late 60s/early 70s vibe. When I revisited the early single and EP before this show, it was a bit of a surprise to find it more at the rockier end of Britpop than, say, the Rolling Stones. So, did I have a false memory of that show? Hell no.
Black Honey don’t do anything new, different or that I haven’t seen dozens of times before but that is not what they are about. As Izzy says early in the set, they are a rock ‘n’ roll band. They’re nothing more nor less than that but they do what they do with a verve, a panache, an effortless cool that can’t be faked and put on a SHOW. I mean, even the choice of guitars - a flying vee for Izzy, a Thunderbird for bassist Tommy and lead guitarist Chris swapping between (what look to me like) a Fender Jaguar and a Gibson ES 335 – is just cool. For all of that, with the exception of the fantastic Spinning Wheel, the songs don’t match the performance.
If I have to rank things, for me PINS have the best songs of the night and are the band I listen to at home whilst Black Honey deliver the best show and Russo are, well, merely okay.
