Babes In Toyland at Shepherd's Bush Empire

Babes In Toyland
Pins
Skating Polly
Shepherd's Bush Empire, 26 May 2015

Well, this was quite the girl powered night.Obviously the big pull of this gig was the promise to see the reunited Babes In Toyland but the two other bands on the bill were absolutely perfectly chosen, not because they were all-female bands but because they definitely embodied the same spirit and attitude that Babes In Toyland always had back in the 1990s.

The first band on the bill were an American duo from Oklahoma called Skating Polly, which actually sounds like it could be a Babes In Toyland track and they even look like mini Babes too (minus Maureen obviously). But they are much more than this and one of the most remarkable things about these cool-looking stepsisters is that they are both still teens: at 15 and 19 they weren't even alive when the Babes last put out an album! This is even the first time they've ever been outside of the US but they certainly don't sound like a band so young and they actually have no less than three albums to their name already. Their sound is pure grunge, full of noisy fuzzed-up guitars, tribal drums and screamed vocals but there's also quite a bit of pop to them as well. There's also the fact that Kelli Mayo (the 15-year-old who looks like a cross between a young Kat Bjelland and Kurt Cobain in her Perfume Genius tee), plays a distorted bass guitar for her songs, so there's only bass and drums and the combined vocals during much of the songs, which gives them a quirkily unique sound. Then the girls change instruments with Kelli on drums and Peyton Bighorse (the 19-year-old in a long white lace dress) playing guitar. Peyton's voice is more girly and melodic than Kelli's screams so it makes a nice contrast. They have to be one of the best support acts I've seen in ages and the crowd couldn't have loved them more.

The awesome Pins

The next act I've actually seen before and only recently, opening for the reunited Sleater-Kinney at their London show: the rather wonderful Manchester band, Pins. Again, every member looks like the kind of girl I would have loved to have been back in my teens: tomboyish, punky, riot grrrl-esque with plenty of Debbie Harry glam. Singer Faith Holgate actually looks a lot more glam and lead singerish than last time but I must admit guitarist Lois McDonald, with her bleached blonde hair and stripey tights and her cool guitar licks, is probably the member the teenage me would most likely want to be the most. They still sound like they are carrying the torch for Sleater-Kinney but with lots of lovely fuzz-filled dreamy pop sounds too and of course lots of punky attitude to boot. Their set is pretty much the same as before, even ending with their song Girls Like Us which morphs into an attitude-filled Girls Just Wanna Have Fun at the end but each time I see them the more I love them. Go Pins!

Finally it's time for the main attraction to take to the stage and I look around and see so many girls (and boys too but definitely in the minority) of different ages (although mostly too young to have been aware of the band first time round), who are so excited and full of anticipation and good feeling. This is not a nasty gig full of people who think they are too cool to be nice, this is a gig full of people united in their happiness and like-mindedness: girls in pretty dresses who like loud, scary raw rock music. Maybe because of all this good feeling something nice happens: a guy in front of me, turns and asks me if I can see. I tell him I can just manage to see over his shoulder and he, without saying a thing, shuffles me in front of him where I suddenly have an awesome view. Thank you kind sir, the spirit of riot grrrl lives on! Rather wonderfully, Babes fans are much nicer and kinder than Bob Dylan fans it seems (if you look back to my Dylan review from a few years back you'll see what I mean).

Naturally the crowd goes wild when the three Babes appear on stage, all of them beaming at the reaction. I actually have seen Babes In Toyland live before back in the 1990s and I even met two thirds of them (at a Lemonheads gig bizarrely enough - Lori was really sweet and friendly, Kat was horrible, just like her public persona at the time). I don't know what to expect seeing them all these years later but I'm pleasantly surprised at how well Lori (Barbero - drummer) and Maureen (Herman - bassist) look. Lori looks like she should be running a health food shop somewhere, all red hair and loose top that falls over one shoulder and Maureen looks smart and stylish in a bell-sleeved top and cool leather boots. 

Frontwoman Kat Bjelland on the other hand looks way more bizarre than ever, like she's stepped back into the old Kat persona like an old dress that hasn't weathered as well as expected. She's as tiny as ever wearing an old white lace mini dress that looks like something she would have worn back in 1992 but her hair - now back to its natural brown colour rather than the peroxide blonde of her youth - is a huge bird's nest of a mess and her face looks pale and gaunt. But here's the thing: she's smiling and laughing and making eye contact with the audience, like she feels connected to them and appreciates them. This is so, so different than the attitude-filled, snarling Bjelland I remember back in the day, the one that seemed to hate everybody and everything. She seems like a different, happier woman and her vocals have never sounded better.

They kick things off with He's My Thing and the crowd errupts into a sea of jumping and dancing. The crazy thing is though, it's not rough, it's joyous and the energy is so, so contagious from the audience right up onto the stage itself. I don't think even the best Babes gigs back in their heyday (certainly not the one I attended anyway) could have felt like this. What happens next is a barrage of pretty much every Babes In Toyland song that any fan would ever love to hear live from Bruise Violet (still obviously about Courtney Love and as angry as ever) to the ferocious Spit To See The Shine to the sinister, barbed lullaby of Ariel (one of my absolute favourites from their last album).

There's a wonderful moment near the end when the band play Vomit Heart (from their debut album Spanking Machine) and the whole audience sings the chorus, leaving Bjelland looking stunned and speechless. Everytime the chorus comes around she remains silent and the crowd fills in for her and she looks genuinely touched and amazed by the love and devotion of all these fans who know all the words to her songs. It's really lovely and something I can't imagine would have happened with the Kat of old. The contrast of this sweet, talkative, happy Kat to the scary, rage-fuelled, high-kicking frontwoman is rather fantastic and I much prefer it to when she was in character the entire time.

Of course there are lots of other highlights, in particular for me the songs they play from Fontanelle, one of the albums that ruled my teenage years. I'm so thrilled to hear tracks like Won't Tell, Right Now and, probably best of all, the punky dark fairytale that is Handsome & Gretel. The only low point comes with the one Lori-sung song of the night, Drivin', which, with only two or three lines to the entire thing, really seems to drag. I love Lori but I can't deny that her songs were always the most skip-worthy on every album but one track is not too much to endure and it is fun to watch Kat going wild on her guitar.

The band sound so much better than I remember: tighter, louder and more menacing than ever. I remember in my teens, I often heard guys dismissing all-female bands like Babes In Toyland and L7 by saying they couldn't play but listening to them tonight it's crazy to me that anyone ever got away with such sexist rubbish because it's clear that not only has their music endured (L7 have also reunited and are playing London soon but sadly I didn't manage to get tickets to that sold-out show) but that it sounds better than ever and is speaking to a new generation of fans.

When the trio returns to the stage to play their encore - probably the poppiest song of their career - the crazy, twisted but so much fun Sweet '69, it's clear there is an incredible amount of love in the room for the band. Lori even announces "I could do this every night for the rest of my life!" and at that moment not only do we believe her but I'm sure most of the crowd would like to be there too. What a triumphant return and a really joyful night.