- Tue, 2007-04-17 11:43
Dragonette live @ The Bournemouth International Centre (BIC)
I am a fish out of water. I usually get sent to review rock bands, playing in the back rooms of pubs or smelly, smoke-filled clubs. Give me a pint of watery lager and an indie band with a cute female bassist and I'm in my element. So to be surrounded by thousands of lairy, noisy, cocky, hyped-to-the-nines teenage girls, baying for the Sugababes is an unfamiliar and curiously unnerving experience.
Consequently, my confidence in being able to provide an insightful review of the evening's support slot by slinky, posing, electro-sex-synth-poppers Dragonette drains rapidly.
Desperate, I decide to seek the expert advice.
Accompanied by my nine year old daughter so I don't look like a sex pest, I ask Becky, Louise, Donna and Kerrie (all 14 years old) what they thought of the London-dwelling Canadian's set.
Becky: I liked them but I don't think I'd buy their CD but I reckon it's the sort of thing Kerrie would like and maybe Louise although Louise only likes bands with boys in them if the boys are fit but I wouldn't mind listening to them if they came on the radio. The girl that did the singing (Martina) was pretty but she couldn't really dance but I really liked her clothes and her hair was well nice too, but I didn't think much of the blokes, they were trying too hard to look cool and were dressed a bit like my older brother dresses in that trying-to-be-trendy-1980s way that my dad probably did actually dress like in the 1980s when he liked that band that had the bloke in that used to be in Eastenders but now does cr@p sofa adverts
Louise: Yeah, I did well like them and I'll probably check them out on myspace except that myspace is a bit boring now 'cos everyone knows about it and boring people spam you about their boring songs all the time, but it's still good for finding out about groups like this one who were cool and I probably would buy the CD if it's of the last song 'cos it was definitely the best one even though the boys were Just. Not. Fit. I only really like boys with fit bodies like Usher, but if they are gonna be skinny they should look like Orlando Bloom or just not bother being in bands really.
Donna, on the other hand thought they were, F***ing sh1t, and that this f***ing lot know f***all'. It's worth mentioning that Donna had just had her pink, glittery, Sugababes cowboy hat (that cost her a f***ing fiver!) nicked off her head by some older girls in the crowd and wasn't in the most effusive of moods.
However, Kerrie said, Donna only likes the Sugababes and R&B really. I thought Dragonette were really good. When I found out who was supporting the Sugababes I checked them out on the 'net and I really like 'I Get Around' (their debut single) even though the lyrics are a bit slaggy, but I think she's singing about people who are like that, not herself. The video for it is well smart and it has Martina getting off with two other girls in it which is a brilliant thing to put in a video even though I'm not into all that but it's good 'cos it'll really p1ss my mum off if she sees it, but I don't reckon it'll get shown on Popworld 'cos people always just get all stroppy about stuff like that
So what have we learned?
Well, if nothing else, we've confirmed that teenage girls have an incredibly acute sense of what they like and dislike and why; that they have an inherent ability to talk at length without the need to pause for something as trivial as breathing; and that they are liable to launch into an expletive filled tirade when irked.
More importantly, we have found that that the majority of them think Dragonette are 'well smart', that their new single is 'cool' and that they'd probably buy it.
Which is great news for Dragonette. Especially when we consider that the real power in the music industry resides with the teenage girls who spend their hard-earned, tantrum-won pocket money on CDs, downloads and ringtones each week.
On that basis we may be hearing rather a lot of more of Dragonette. We well like them.
Review by Chris Waugh
