Six months on since the release of their creatively titled debut album, ‘Album’, the hype surrounding San Franciscan emotional indie rockers Girls is thankfully beginning to die down. Does this mean we’ll finally be able to read something about them just once without hearing about the stranger-than-fiction cult upbringing and subsequent Texan millionare guardianship of frontman Christopher Owens? Well, not this time. But with the band now making the transition to phase two of the popular musician career arc, (i.e. a length period of continuous touring to develop and solidify a core fan base before the release of the Difficult Second Album) their first Irish gig was a perfect opportunity to find out whether there was a real band behind the story and the (admittedly quite good) Album.
The answer was happily a solid and assured if not quite resounding yes. This incarnation of Girls looked and felt like a cohesive unit, rather than two dudes and a bunch of hired hands . They were relaxed on stage, musically tight, and best of all they dodged the boring trap of blandly reproducing the album sound down to the note by extending, building, and expanding on the studio versions which kept things pretty interesting thoughout. Funnily enough it was the two songs that everyone was waiting to hear that fell flat. On record Hellhole Ratrace somehow manages to be both melancholic and hopeful, live however it was simply static and lengthy, despite a beefed up chorus. Lust for Life sounded kind of empty as well, although the dude who hopped up on his mate’s shoulders and ripped his shirt off (with his teeth!) to hurl at the band in ecstasy probably disagrees. He missed the climax though, it actually happened just before that when the band rode an expertly handled freeform noise trailout straight into a storming version of Morning Light. This sounded amazing and a hinted at a very exciting direction they’ll hopefully explore in subsequent releases.
The whole performance benefitted greatly from Owens’ laid-back, charismatic stage presence. Blue shoes, red pants, a patterned sweater, and a leather baseball cap sounds like a recipe for hipster hate, but amazingly the whole thing works because he just comes across as so honest and genuine. The drummer however is dire need of an image intervention by his close friends and loved ones. “Look man we all think it is just so cool how you can twirl those drumsticks! Really. But have you thought about not doing it on literally every single song?” Credibility was something of a question mark for this group coming in but an enjoyable and skillful performance has put that to rest and their future seems very bright, but with a little ways to go it still depends on what they do from here on out. Let’s just hope they start by shaving the drummer’s awful moustache.
Marcus O’Sullivan
Girls – “Lust For Life”
