The Schla La Las

All dressed in the same red and black zigzag skirts with optional red fishnets, the look has been lifted from a time of elegance, the original Alfie, flesh toned lippy and starched-til-it-snaps, bouffants. **The Schla La Las' version comes with laddered tights, unsafe zips and for the most part, disobedient hair.

The five of them, lead by the more sultry than most Piney Gir, open with a shouty B52s type number and ask 'Are you Ready?', and there's a dance that goes with it too. Arms, hips and faux-defiant expressions sway to the gently choreographed positions just as Diana Ross and the Supremes may have done before them.

A mildly puzzled but increasingly curious Sunday Cardiff crowd, draw closer for a better look. Cardboard broken heart badges are pinned to each player's shirt. On the eve of St Valentines, how many hearts will the Schla La Las break tonight?

The dancing stops, to be followed by big, girl-band action, with rumbling twin bass guitars that ransack Kim Deal's province. But having gone all serious rock chick, a padded restaurant menu appears and things get weirdly Teutonic in a song with the surprising refrain of "I'm going back to Germany to stuff my face!"

Ahem...

Next comes a sweet little song about being fucking bitches (and still being better than you!) sung by George, that has more than a sprinkling of Elastica in it.

The Schla La Las are not the most precise band ever witnessed. They are not always in tune or necessarily in time and they don't stray too far from the most basic of arrangements or chords either, but they do one thing exceptionally well: they don't give a fuck.

Intentionally or not, their shabby version of sleek reappropriates the female dolly bird subservience of 50s and 60s style, using it for their own purposes. They might totter like little girls who've raided the dressing up box but what they have in abundance is a punk spirit that shows up the "punk" of Green Day as worthy of derision, to say the least.

So by the time they get to the end of their set and the 'Schlas' Theme', one more thing is clear. They put on a great show, are brilliant fun and Sunday's Cardiff crowd think so too.