Wednesday 30 April 2014

Live review: Brody Dalle, The Beaches @ Leadmill, Sheffield


Brody Dalle, former front woman of thunderous punk band The Distillers, stopped off in Sheffield on her brief UK tour to support her new album ‘Diploid Love’.

Source: NME
Opening the show were Canadian girl band The Beaches. Despite their teenage years, the four-piece boldly tore through their set as if they’d been touring for decades. Highlighted best by the song ‘Little Pieces’, the band produce a formidable alt-rock sound, drawing inspiration from the likes of Band of Skulls and The White Stripes. Their EP ‘Heights’, due out next month, is worth looking into.

Main act of the night Brody Dalle, who coincidently was hiding former Distillers guitarist Tony Bevilacqua amongst her band for the evening, fittingly chose to open her set with new song ‘Rat Race’. I say fittingly because of the line ‘I’m going to burn this city down’ which she basically did, or left some Sheffield natives with burnt out vocal chords at the very least.

Her new material, slightly more subtle on record, was properly thrashed at. ‘Meet the Foetus/Oh the Joy’ in particular was given universal approval by the packed out Leadmill crowd. Other new songs such as ‘Don’t Mess With Me’ and ‘Underworld’ fit in to the set as if they were Distillers classics, whilst ‘Parties for Prostitutes’ complimented the heavier material nicely.

The Distillers classics made up the majority of the set, much to the delight of the crowd. It’s been eight years since The Distillers broke up so, despite the quality of Brody’s new material, renditions of ‘Sick of it All’ and ‘Dismantle Me’ brought out a cry of ecstasy from the crowd that couldn’t be matched.

Completing the set list, as well as a cover of ‘Hybrid Moments’ by The Misfits, was ‘Ghetto Love’ from Brody’s previous project Spinnerette. This, a more danceable track than others, was introduced with the words ‘Dance with me, I’m not going to dance for you.’ Quite right.

Overall the set was exhilarating. There are many punk bands around today, but none of them quite like The Distillers, and none of them with anyone like Brody. We just hope she comes back to tour again.


Brody Dalle’s new album is out now and can be heard here.

Words by Jamie Doherty

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