Venus Grrrls brought their UK tour to an end with a packed out show at Manchester's Soup on Saturday night supported by Macclesfield's Queen Cult.
We arrive as Queen Cult start their second or third song as they're trying to get audience participation from an initially uncertain but finally willing Manchester crowd. They understand the need to connect and their between song chat makes you warm to them. They're not helped by the muddy sound, always an issue in Soup, as they're loud and full-on, but the energy and joy that they feed into their performance overcomes this. There's plenty of swearing, plenty of laughter, but the songs like Hole In My Head, Be Better and the stalker-story Stop Calling demonstrate a more serious approach to their art and their message. The crowd really warm to them as the set progresses, always a good sign, and they win over a good few new admirers.
It's six years since we covered Venus's (as they were then known) debut single Deranged and regrettably this is the first headline set we've ever seen from them. A lot has happened in that intervening time but the most striking thing about tonight's show is that it still possesses that raw energy that made their debut such a thrilling listen. Across forty-five minutes tonight of songs written later as their sound and art has progressed, they demonstrate exactly why people are waking up to them, filling out venues like this across the country and propelling them to the edge of a breakthrough to a wider audience.
The close bond within the band, tightened by Grace's acute myeloid leukaemia diagnosis and recovery as they came out of lockdown, is evident both visually in the little looks and smiles they throw and the camaraderie between them and in their sound which has developed into a super-tight live sound without losing the anger and energy that can often fall by the wayside as a band develops.
They hit hard from the start with their three most recent singles Divine, Bloodsick and Darla opening the set, Grace proclaiming "welcome Coven" at the end of Divine, as if ushering us into their world of fighting the dual evils of misogyny and cancer that run through many of their songs. Grace's brush with death is detailed in Bloodsick and Lidocaine, and before the latter she makes an impassioned plea for people to sign up to the Anthony Nolan Trust and become a stem cell donor to save lives. Hex and Liar Liar take aim at the struggles of women in society and the threats they face and act as a call to arms to defeat them.
Goth Girl finishes the set on an ecstatic celebration of who they are, who a large section of their audience are, an identity to be shouted about and to be proud of despite negative bullshit connotations some might place on how they look or dress or act. So much of what Venus Grrrls are about, beyond making great music that draws in the likes of us, is to empower and champion young women to kick back and fight for themselves and to include everyone in that message.
Venus Grrrls are on Facebook and Twitter.
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