GOAT GIRL – CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON 24.9.21
I first encountered Goat Girl back in 2016 supporting Parquet Courts at the Old Market in Hove. As a fan of post punk the first time round, I was instantly taken by their spiky guitars and reflective lyrics that could quite easily have come from a Rough Trade records release from back in 1980, whilst still sounding a vital part of South London’s 21st century punk scene that was emerging at the time.
Five years later sees the all-female quartet on their second album, ‘On All Fours’, with a sound that has moved on to synth-led grooves and vocal harmonies that recall The Coral or Echo & The Bunnymen’s neo-psychedelic wig outs laced with Balearic bliss.
Health issues have taken their toll on the band; guitarist LED, aka Ellie Rose Davies, has survived cancer through chemotherapy; drummer Rosy Bones (Jones) was badly scalded by a stranger’s boiling hot tea on an Irish Sea ferry, leading to a cancelled tour and the second album song ‘PTS Tea’ (The culprit neither apologised or even acknowledged what had happened); whilst tonight bassist Holly Hole (Mullineaux) had broken her hand and was reduced to shaking a tambourine and backing vocals.
Goat Girl live shows used to be rather self-contained affairs with audience interaction kept to an aloof minimum, but tonight at the Concorde 2 they exuded an impassive confidence, especially Lottie Pendlebury, the lead singer and guitarist who still goes by her punky alias of Clottie Cream, whose dad was one of the supporting musicians playing violin. Her smooth, persistent vocals sat on top of a tight set of songs drawn from the second album only now being played live following its release during lockdown.
Personally speaking, a few of their livelier songs from the first album would not have gone amiss, but second album standouts such as ‘Sad Cowboy’, ‘The Crack’ and ‘PTS Tea’ all sounded great live with the backing vocal harmonies and synths showing why Goat Girl stand out from the many bands playing post-punk sounds in 2021.
