Ouch. Our heads and ears are still a bit sore after last night’s Alternative Valentine’s celebrations. Three wondrously unique female-fronted bands, cocktails, dancing, DJing courtesy of the Catholic Girls, and not a rose, teddybear or lovesick couple in sight. Perfect.
Crafty cupids had been hard at work, transforming the Fox into a decadent Moulin Rouge boudoir, with cut-out cardboard lovehearts adorning the bar and items for sale from the lovely ladies of the Fox’s own weekly knitting and crochet club, Nit Nit.
First up was Angela Luzi, an Italian singer-songwriter in a three-headed harlequin mask with a backing band including cello and piano. A grandiose, theatrical extravaganza that mixed flamenco, circus, jazz-blues cabaret and Italian folk. Add in a lot of gold glitter, operatic vocals and a rearrangement of the theme from The Godfather with Tori Amos, and the audience were smitten.
Next on stage were Nila & The Rajas, Eastern-inspired indie-pop reminiscent of Howling Bells or Bat for Lashes by a talented, ethereal vocalist backed by chaps in sequinned shirts.
And for the grand finale, Pussycat and The Dirty Johnsons; a sleazy, pyschobilly hellcat-fronted surf-rock riot. Imagine Juliette Lewis in a lo-fi Catwoman costume, except smaller and sweeter, with a ferocious snarl, and you’re halfway to picturing the awe-inducing tiger-printed powerhouse that is Pussycat Johnson. Wrestling with audience members, clambering all over the bar; this is one woman you don’t wanna mess with. Even without a bass player, they had the entire audience dancing and screaming for more by the end of their set.
Phew! If it gives us an excuse to have knees-ups like this, we might even start to look forward to these corporate romance wankfests.