Venue: Birmingham Barfly

Date: September 9th 2006

Bands: Not So Pretty

Tonight has seen a coach load of dedicated followers of this Ilkeston band have been disrupted from their usual Saturday night, seated on a bus, transported to Birmingham and abandoned in the middle of a place called Digbeth. For any reason you ask? ‘NotSoPretty’ they will tell you. Each, and every one of them. This gives you an idea of how loyal and devoted a fan base this band already have.

The band, RedmonT, Tank, Blanc and Crib, are tonight playing one of their biggest gigs to date. For this occasion around fifty of their most loyal and loving fans have travelled to Birmingham to support their local heroes. First, we a required to witness support from ‘Post War Years’ and ‘Mail Order Brides’. Neither are particularly bad, the crowd seem to like both bands enough, however the biggest, and best reaction is saved for tonight’s headliners. NotSoPretty take the stage around 9.45pm. Quietly and unannounced they appear from the darkness, in a similar way to that of the killer in the old black and white horror movies. Only they don’t come brandishing knives. They explode, without warning into their first song. “You don’t love me…you only want to fuck me” Spits RedmonT. Tonight his lips are smeared with bright red lipstick. The shade generally favoured by hookers, and Gwen Steffani. He careers around the stage, taking little or no notice of anything or anyone around him. He is in another world, it is captivating, almost scary. It is pure pleasure to watch a front man so involved in what he is doing, so caught up in his passion for music that he doesn’t notice if his picture is taken, or if the girl in the third row is flashing her tits. It makes a pleasant change.

The band really are on top form tonight. Like many here I’ve seen them before, but they’ve never played as well as they do tonight. The atmosphere is electric. Every face wears a smile, and most wear a fair bit of sweat too. A lot of dancing is done, well, I say dancing, it’s more violent that your average disco, but then NSP aren’t exactly Franz Ferdinand are they.

The way in which Tank attacks his bass has been commented on many times. It has never been more true than tonight. He plays with a raw passion that crowd appreciate, and he feeds off of their reaction, and they feed off of him, and so the vicious circle continues. Tonight we also get to hear Tanks vocal talent, which previously hasn’t been quite so amplified. He sings well, in a way that compliments RedmonT, rather than trying to compete with him. It is subtle and effective. Tank, it would seem, is a man of many talents.

Blanc seems at home on the stage tonight, he plays well, roaming around the stage and interacting with RedmonT in that way that only a band on stage can. It is beautiful to see. Again his guitar pedal, or leads, let him down. We are again entertained by jokes about Stevie Wonder and cheese graters. We are also treated to a quick performance by the remaining three members of the band, who leads seem to be just fine, as a red faced Blanc deals with his equipment. As it comes to an end we get an apology from Blanc ‘Sorry about that… fucking lead’ or something similar. We also get a stream of thanks from RedmonT. For coming, for waiting, for watching, for waiting a bit more, and for still watching.

The band play more songs, all are well received, although none as well received as ‘BombSpeak’ which is now firmly established as THE crowd favourite, with ‘Mommy what’s a pacifist’ coming a close second. ‘BombSpeak’ is absolutely amazing tonight. It really is. The crowd love it, and know every word. “Stay away, from suspicious packages” they sing along with RedmonT. You know that part of the gig where the crowd almost drown out the singer, well this is that bit. It causes the dancing to become even more frenzied, and those who were not dancing before sure as hell are now. A couple more songs and then that is it. It’s over. No encore. This band leaves you wanting more. Never an encore.

Laura x