Others may try, but there’s never any pretence of objectivity at Picky Bastards. And when we get the offer of a gig to review, we’re usually jumping at the chance to get to see a band we already know and love.
Tonight however, was slightly different. I’m not not a fan of Girl Ray, but at the same time I’ve not followed them closely, am unfamiliar with most of their songs and was surprised to learn that their most recent album Prestige was their third. So a teeny tiny gamble on seeing them tonight, albeit one I’m confident will pay off.
But first a quick note on the venue. Soup has been transformed with a clean and level floor, fire safety, air con, acoustic panelling and a snazzy logo. Yet it still clings on to the hallmarks of the dingy basement it once was: the bar is still tiny and awkward and the toilets are still reassuringly disgusting. A brilliant ‘new’ venue to add to the ever burgeoning Manchester scene. Go soon if you get the chance.
Anyway back to the gig. I took a further mild gamble on Girl Ray’s start time. 9pm seemed reasonable. I strolled in at 8.55 only to find they’d already begun. With no time for in-venue excitement to build, I was straight into the crowd gently bobbing along in unison.
And what quickly struck me most was how their sound came alive, live. Musicianship, the bass playing in particular, came to the fore. And Poppy Hankin’s voice sounded even more uncannily like a younger Tracy Thorn, only to be confirmed later by a cover of Everything But The Girl’s ‘Missing’. It was like they’d read my mind even if the cover itself came across as a little unimaginative.
Aside from this, their two biggest songs from previous album Girl, and an old tune ‘just for a laugh really’ for the diehard fans, the set was very focused on Prestige, which suited me just fine. This album is punctuated by what I suspect many in Friday night’s audience will know as ‘the guitars from that Daft Punk song’, but many more (older) fans will also recognise as the trademark Nile Rogers production style, most notably on ‘Wanna Dance’. Girl Ray have proved however that shelling out millions they don’t have on sounding like Chic (and Daft Punk on that song) is unnecessary, and have unintentionally unravelled Mr Rogers decades long career in the process. As Girl Ray themselves sing joyously, ‘it’s e-ee-e-ee-easy’. That’s not to say they’ve not put the effort in, and the work they have done is paying off in front of a sold-out Soup crowd.
The band had some entertaining schtick about not doing encores, and were reminded of their first gig in Manchester where they begrudgingly performed one. In homage to beloved memory of that gig, they faux-begrudgingly went through the motions of doing a “last song” before coming back on stage for album and gig highlight ‘Give me your love’, which sees the girls ditch their guitars in favour of exciting electronic alternatives, and even a vocoder. The result was their favoured earnestly joyful sound, only with more bite, and even some hand clapping from the crowd. A perfect tone to end on.
And by 9:45 it was done before I’d even finished my second can of beer. I appreciate I missed the first ten minutes, but for a band with three albums worth of material, playing just shy of an hour did seem a little like short changing people. On the other hand, Girl Ray don’t go in for a long song, with a tightly constructed, three or four minute, indie-pop-disco tune being their speciality, so perhaps it was exactly the right amount of time to play for. Either way I was convinced – their case to persuade the casual fan taking a gamble, is just as tightly constructed, and flawlessly executed. I was ready to take my final mild gamble of the night and walked out of Soup (still before 10pm), poorer in pocket but musically richer, carefully clutching my new vinyl copy of Prestige. And I’ll be sure to turn up early next time.
Words by James Spearing
Picky Bastards 