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After extensive touring as the support for the likes of Skunk Anansie and Slash, The Virginmarys have embarked upon their own headline tour. Unfortunately when we saw them, Rock City Basement was barely half full with an audience made up of mainly over 25’s.
The band were not at all phased by the small crowd or by the fact that their support band hadn’t bothered to show up and baring masses of enthusiasm they kick-started the evening with aplomb. With gritty fast paced, punchy songs such as the new My Little Girl and old time favourite Portrait Of Red The Virginmarys set flowed along with ease. Looking upon the nodding along, appreciative crowd it was clearly obvious that the band have a dedicated Nottingham fan-base, albeit not a huge one.
The drummer Danny is fascinating to watch, with bags of energy and slick, hard-hitting beats. Along with Matt on bass they create some very tight lines that forge a strong base for each and every song.
The Virginmarys are an incredibly loud, full sounding three-piece. Ally’s gorgeous raspy vocals shine with undertones of Lemmy (Motorhead), and is brilliantly complimented by Matt’s gruff vocals. Their songs deliver an air of familiarity yet still retain something new and exciting.
They played their new single Just A Ride taken from their newly released EP of the same name. It’s a high-powered infectious track and a great choice for their next release as it will surely gain them plenty of new fans.
Before leaving the stage the guys performed a two song encore including Bang Bang Bang, one of their most well-known songs, followed by massive cheers from an incredibly admiring crowd.
It was clearly obvious that the people who had made an effort to come out to see the show thoroughly enjoyed it and I think the majority of the audience (if not all) were already massive fans and came to see The Virginmarys specifically rather than by chance.
Review: Tina Bass, Pictures: Lara Leon-Cullen