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2. thisGIRL/Dog Toffee - 29/3/01
Saturday night at the Leopard saw Dog Toffee supported by thisGIRL, the third band, Suburbia missing presumed missing. The audience was predominantly thisGIRL fans who’d come especially for the occasion, but surrounding me at the bar were a core group of more mature punters, discussing their vinyl collections. First up were thisGIRL, (formerly Gerl) four shiny-eyed young balls of energy from Rotherham. I’d seen them on one previous occasion being sonically mutilated by the worst sound system in the history of bad sound, but having heard so many good things about them, I waited in anticipation of first impressions being rectified. I’d been having Bizkit clone worries from the baggy jeans but that’s a necessity when you’re hurling yourself across the stage in the ecstasy of rockstardom. The lead singer postured and screamed like nothing I’ve ever seen before. The energy remained high right from opener 2 Many Magnetic Words through the more melodic and fantastic Lifts, Curves and Separates to the gobsmacking finale, jumping off the stage in unison and leaping right back up again. None of that apathy you see in the majority of Britain’s youth, they are a polished act without being straightjacketed by genre. The closest comparison would be with the Deftones, but fresher, raw. If that’s got you panting for more you’ll find thisGIRL and many more of Doncaster and Rotherham’s finest and loudest on Collectible Recordings, available at Track Records.
Dog Toffee describe themselves as punk and their single Deliverance and Defiance goes from pure pop punk to what sounds like the Damned covering an Everley Brothers tune. A bit different on Saturday though. It is punk, but filtered through richest thrash metal and coated with axel grease. ‘First thing I’m going to say’ in a Mancunian transatlantic drawl, ‘is stand up, we’re not at Woodstock now.’ Charming young men, other than requesting more drugs and pointing us in the direction of their merchandise they didn’t have a great deal to say. The maturer listeners with their short spiky girlfriends liked this much more, testosterone-riddled, two minute, seismic songs. While being great musicians, all of them, the sum was not quite as great as the parts. They’ve been playing stadiums apparently, supporting Therapy?, so perhaps they were annoyed playing a less prestigious venue. Shame.
The Leopard on Saturday plays host to The Complete Stone Roses and Dyrti Motha (pronounced Dirty Mother) bring eighties LA rock to the Paris Gate on Tuesday. They have to be seen to be believed.
