P!NK
Cardiff International Arena
Being in a minority seems to be a bad thing these days. Usually fodder for
Newsnight, Radio 2 phone-ins and BNP marches, I’ve often wondered why
no-one’s taken it upon themselves to put the Merriment back into Minority.
How happy I was then to be championing the underdog and fighting for the cause
by, erm…being just about the only bloke (without a ‘tache) in an
arena, yes, ARENA full of women. But despite the seeming differences between
the sexes here (nose rings, skinheads, coloured hair, tattoos - yes, the women)
our crimson leader managed to get us all marching to the beat of her drum with
her arsenal of big-hitters. Out came Stupid Girls to ‘get our party started’,
the town was well and truly painted P!nk with U and Ur Hand, and her cover
of 4 Non Blondes’ What’s Up? got our collective hips swaying in
unison. With a knock-out Madonna-esque set, an embarrassment of catchy tunes
and what’s fast becoming less like a motley-crew but an army of diverse,
individual fans - it seems Ms Alicia Moore knows how to appeal to the noisy
majority.
Jo Roberts
ANDTHEYWILLRIOT! / THE DEATH OF HER MONEY
Le Pub, Newport
Andtheywillriot! are playing a final tour before calling it a day. This wet
Tuesday evening in dark, dank November sees them playing a room in the roof
of Le Pub to a select handful of the dedicated. The throngs who aren’t
here
are missing out. Inventive punk rock is hard to come by. The departing ATWR!
take their cues from heavy metal, jazz, post-hardcore and the variety of crazed,
frenetic
vocal-mangling rockers at large. They noodle, riff and explode with purposeful
poise and passion, guitars wailing and singing on tangential beats. They will
be sadly missed by those who like their rock challenging.
The Death Of Her Money, playing a hometown show, get three songs in. That the
set lasts 20 minutes indicates that the two-minute punk song isn’t in
their repertoire. Instead, Scandinavian Accent, Flood Of Love and Falling Painting
are giant post-rock walls of sound, influenced by the dynamic post-hardcore
of the likes of Quicksand. They crank out enormous riffs while vocalist Kaskie
rasps over the top of monoliths of sound that shake the foundations. Both thrilling,
but one frenetic and one as unstoppable as magma, these two bands show elements
rarely publicised in the world of Welsh rock.
James McLaren
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