Girls doing it for themselves

March 20, 2016 Chris Patmore Live Review, UK
The Franklys

By Chris Patmore, Rock At Night London Correspondent

VENUE: The Finsbury, London—March 17, 2016—The Franklys with Clever Thing and The Sly Persuaders

Women have always been an integral part of popular music, primarily as singers or singer-songwriters, but with the arrival of riot grrrl movement the females of the species became dangerous. Now, all-girl bands were embracing the punk ethic and doing it for themselves. No more demure acoustic guitar strumming, these ladies were rocking and shredding their guitars on equal terms (at least musically) with their male counterparts. Although sexism still exists in the music industry (as does racism and ageism), it is not as rife as it is in other fields and is more likely to come from the non-musicians in the industry. Gender politics aside, when you turn up to a gig all you really want to know is, “Will they rock?”, and London-based four piece The Franklys certainly fulfilled that criteria. In fact, all three bands at The Finsbury that evening, put on by Some Weird Sin, delivered the goods.

Clever Thing, a new band fronted by Daisy Coburn (Pink Lizards) and Rich Fownes (Bad For Lazarus), is a aural amalgam of the blues-rock of those two bands, but with a slightly rawer edge. Their sound also bears hints of favourites Saint Agnes, with whom the other two bands toured at the end of 2015, and who were also in audience. In fact, a lot of local musicians turned up for the gig, which certainly upped the evening’s credibility.

Second support for the evening was London-based The Sly Persuaders. Their hypnotic fuzzy, scuzzy psych surf sound with its driving rhythm backline and dirty guitar riffs is the perfect accompaniment for when you want to catch a tube, whether at the beach or on the London Underground.

The Franklys don’t look like your typical riot grrrls, and don’t even have the angry swagger, but once they start playing it’s rock ‘n’ roll all the way, with the two blonde Nordic guitarists dispelling any doubts about whether girls can shred or not.

Follow all these bands on social media and catch them when you can, you want be disappointed.

PHOTO GALLERY

THE FRANKLYS

The Franklys
The Franklys

THE SLY PERSUADERS

The Sly Persuaders

CLEVER THING

Clever Thing

MUSIC

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Links

The Franklys

The Sly Persuaders

Clever Thing

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Chris Patmore
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