Katastrophy Wife

On first and playing to a huddle of teenpunks Lamina are an angry bunch. The all male teenage three piece ignore the nu-metal cliches for the most part though, taking influence from Nirvana and the grunge movement instead. However, unlike Cobain’s incendiary group Lamina often trade melody for powerchord churned angst and chunks of Korn riffs. Most songs falling back on the quiet verse/loud chorus model. Still, the overall effect is good if a little dated.

The crowd doesn’t so much cheer as scream adulation when Lancaster’s best known girl gang take to the stage. Angelica exude cool, five years together giving them the kind of look and attitude that simply can’t be manufactured. With a deceptively meek greeting to the crowd they begin. Rachel hammers the beat, looking like she’d be just as at home drumming for Fear Factory. Claire bashes her guitar whilst whirling her hair around as if in a shampoo ad on E. Bridget solidly plays bass whilst sharing vocal duties and keeping half an eye on Holly. Holly is the ultimate front woman, so deranged on stage she spends half the set on her back and the other half crying out the words, wildly stabbing at her guitar.

All but three of the songs played tonight are new, Evening Session anthem "Why Did You Let My Kitten Die" made more important by it’s absence, highlighting their radical swing from indiepop to full on noise drenched post-riot grrrl. New single, "Liberation", is a bittersweet melodic blast whilst "I Want A Piece Of The Action" is so throat rippingly vicious it’s L7 carving Courtney Love into a thousand pieces with Eminem’s chainsaw. But good. These directed anthems of anger, frustration and anarchy make up the bulk of the new material and establish Angelica as leading ladies in the DIY (Destroy It Yourself) revolt against mundane mainstream mediocrity. Soulful and spiky.

Chunky riffs, unrestrained screaming, clumping drums, more screaming…Kat Bejelland used to be in Babes In Toyland and it shows. Grown up riot grrrls (riot wimmin?) aside the ‘Babes will mean little or nothing to today’s music fan though, their brief notoriety stemming from their ultra feminist rhetoric rather than their actual songs. Why soon becomes clear. If Kat was not fronting this (otherwise male) line-up Katastrophe Wife wouldn’t make it to being an opening act at the Hope and Anchor. Cliché ridden dirge rock effort follows dirge rock effort and the incessant wailing continues. Not even a brief stage invasion by Angelica can attract more than temporary interest. Maybe this particular wife should seek some marriage guidance, her current musical union is clearly disfunctional.