Allow me, then, to redress the balance. The Pistolas are from Norwich, there are four of them and they are great. Often reminiscent of Ikara Colt, they play skittish, spiky garage rock in which riffs skip over each other and veer round the edges of frantic, shouted vocals from a frantic, shouty vocalist. And while singer Simon’s sparky, punky singing fits right into the noise to become almost part of the tune, bassist Naomi’s clearer, more tuneful (in a warped, punk-appropriate way) backing vocals stand out over the top of it all to add a bit of clarity and colour to the mix. Echoing tunes occasionally make themselves heard between the hollers, but most of the time The Pistolas prefer burying their melodies beneath jerking rhythms.
Onstage the band members throw themselves around in a near-collision course manner, winding themselves up in the process into a state of spectacular nervous energy and edgy tension. They clearly love the noise they make and throw themselves into it in a thoroughly impassioned manner – and while this sort of thing has of course been done before, it hasn’t often been done better.
