Husk

It’s an odd match. Headlining we have Susy Thomas, a defiantly commercial M People lounge music wannabe, with two grrrl powered teen rock bands as support. We are not going to talk about Susy Thomas because, frankly, she does not belong here. Susy Thomas belongs in Simply Red support slots and Jane-from-The-Cruise’s Star For A Night. Neither are we going to say much on middle billed The Suffrajets, an all girl three piece who sound like Vyvyan after more Donna’s and less Toni Basil. Runners up points for jumping up and down a bit though, and for having a drummer who looks like "Big Claire" from Popstars, complete with cowboy hat.

No, we’re going to talk about Husk, a three piece fronted by two mid-teen girls and a bloke drummer. Husk mix up choppy Sleater Kinney riffs with rumbling hard rock bass (which SK have always so desperately lacked). The singer has a thing for those huge trousers so I would suspect they probably own at least one copy of Linkin Park’s album between them, though thankfully they avoid wallowing in self pity for any longer than absolutely necessary. Cheerfully announcing the songs and their meanings throughout the set they’re not quite on the Radiohead level of thought but their gutsy and emotional sound will no doubt at least see them to the premier league in their home town of Watford. Anything beyond that may be out of their reach for the meantime until they really define their own sound.