Gigwise: Blood Red Shoes (live)

Wednesday 10/10/07 Blood Red Shoes @ Bush Hall

For a band whose debut album is still a fair way off yet to sell out a small-to-mid-sized venue suggests Blood Red Shoes may just have some be destined for more than the average, unlike their two distinctly below-par supports Tinseltown and Elle Milano. Okay, said venue is in a trendier-than-thou area of West London and was open to all those 14 and over but still, anything your mate may have told you about this band (or you told your mates) could just be true.

Walking into a venue that doesn’t look like a converted warehouse with the walls and floor painted black is always going to be a pleasant start. Bush Hall is a quirkily luxurious venue. Its high, chandeliered ceiling does nothing to spoil its intimacy and even the carpeted floors are an agreeable addition. In its 100 year history Bush Hall has existed as a dance hall, a soup kitchen, a bingo hall and a snooker den. Thankfully it looks much more charming as an event venue than a smoke-filled bingo hall with toothless women cackling over who won the stuffed toy.

Despite being over-subscribed the organisers had thankfully decided not to squash every last body in so those who wanted to had plenty room to move, dance and actually see something of the talented twosome onstage. Blood Red Shoes comprise of drummer/singer Steven Ansell and guitarist/singer Laura-Mary Carter, both hailing from Brighton. Both possess the skinny, indie demureness that is so common among today’s music scene and Carter is not adverse to a nice jump-on-the-spot-style of indie-cool dancing. They do, however, have a hefty helping of charisma between them so it doesn’t quite feel like you’re watching just another indie band. Plus, they don’t feel the need to sing in a local accent for the purposes of catching the attention of the press so bonus points to them.

Swooping straight into the stomping ‘It’s Getting Boring by the Sea’, BRS make sure from the beginning that you know they ain’t one of those stand there and murmur into the mic types. Much like how you don’t expect a newborn baby to be able to produce its shrieking racket at such an ungodly volume, the frantic room-filling pop-rock that comes from these two small indie kids is quite startling too.

Carter, a kind of talented version of Alexa Chung, happily shouts her way through the faster tracks; something many fail to pull off, but somehow she does. Certainly, for a good-looking pair, they’ve got the unrefined, aural brilliance to match the promises. Singles ‘I Wish I Was Someone Better’ and ‘You Bring Me Down’ are flawlessly delivered and the pre-encore ending of ‘ADHD’ left the crowd literally crying out for more. The traditional return for one last song is not normally a part of their repertoire but tonight they had little choice but to give the crowd what they wanted. And the sweaty, smiling faces that came pouring out at the end certainly seemed to agree.

Published on gigwise.com 17th October 2007