Speedy Ortiz at The Lexington

Speedy Ortiz
Joanna Gruesome
The Lexington, 19 February 2014

So tonight I was transported back to 1993. Or at least it felt that way. Both bands playing The Lexington, a small venue upstairs from a pub, owe a huge debt the alternative music of the 90s (aka my era) which is obviously very cool but makes me feel old as the members of each group were only little kids or not even born in those long ago Nirvana days.
Suddenly I know what the people who grew up in the 60s and 70s felt like when the early 90s began aping their music and revering The Doors. Funnily enough, just the other day my brother said to me that Kurt Cobain is Jim Morrison to today's youth (this was after I told him I saw a Cobain t-shirt for sale in a popular supermarket chain) and it's depressing but true: the alternative music of the 90s is nostalgia music now, a memory for grown-ups with kids to remember their youth by and youngsters who don't remember it or weren't there first time around to rediscover and make their own, the way Nirvana did with punk and Black Sabbath. So here we are in 2014 and Speedy Ortiz is bringing back fuzzy dischordant lo-fi riffs and the support tonight, Joanna Gruesome, is making the sounds of riot grrl and shoegaze their own.

When Joanna Gruesome take to the stage they really do look like a bunch of sixth formers playing a school party, the Cardiff five piece looking suitably geeky and disheveled (I'm sure J Mascis would approve).  That is aside from singer Alanna McArdle who looks the picture of riot grrrl chic with her short bob and crop top. The songs are always interesting going from dreamy Lush-style vocals with Mascis inspired harmonies and jangly Teenage Fanclub guitars to shouty punk rock to make the likes of Kathleen Hanna and At The Drive-In proud, sometimes all in the space of one song. McArdle is a compelling frontwoman, able to scream with the best of them and happily jumping around as if she is having the time of her life. But its curly-haired guitarist/vocalist Owen Williams who is the mouthpiece for the band, often talking between songs to the audience and at one point introducing a tune as a song about "the first time I ate an avocado." Really this is a band full of humour (as evidenced by their Joanna Newsom-inspired name) and such youthful energy, it's hard not to love what they do. They also pretty much reference all the best trends of the 90s in their music from dreampop to grunge to punky riot grrrl. The 90s is back and its still cool.

Speedy Ortiz also do the 90s thing but it's more inspired by the twisty, edgy sounds of the likes of Shudder To Think and Helium. Singer/songwriter/guitarist all-round awesome front lady Sadie Dupuis looks like she could have been in Veruca Salt (in her leopard print dress she even kind of looks like Nina Gordon) and sounds like cooler Liz Phair (as I'm of the opinion Liz Phair was never really that cool). That said, the comparisons don't really do her justice because there's something unique and brilliant about Dupuis: she's funny and talkative to the audience yet when she plays she is so effortlessly cool: snarling into the microphone and then just letting loose with her guitar (at which she is very adept). Obviously there are guys in the band too but for me tonight it was all about Dupuis and if I was still a teenager I would certainly idolise her. 

As for the music itself, of course it was heavier and punkier than on record in the best possible way. Beginning with American Horror, the first track from their excellent new EP, Real Hair, the show immediately launches into delightfully feedback-drenched riffs and sweet melodies melting into the beautifully distorted wall of sound. Dupuis is a brilliant lyricist (one of my favourites being the song Taylor Swift, about a girl bragging about all the boyfriends she has, which they play tonight thankfully) and her words are particularly striking on a slower number, one of my favourites from their debut LP, Major Arcana, No Below. "You didn't know me when I was a kid, but swimming with you it sure feels like I did" she sings as the song builds to a swell of fuzzy guitars and drums. It sounds beautiful and is easily the best song of the night. It's also my Road to Damascus moment when I went from being merely a casual listener to a true believer. That's the power of a good gig and, more importantly, a really good band. And as Sadie and the guys left the stage to a background of echoing and howling feedback I was in no doubt that Speedy Ortiz is a very good band indeed.

Anyway, there is a cool photo gallery of Speedy Ortiz pics from the night on the excellent website The Line Of Best Fit.