Tuesday 04/11/03 Chicks On Speed @ Band On The Wall, Manchester

Manchester is closed tonight. Seriously. Every bar within the city center has been shut down due to the escalating threat of footie fans. So a German, an American and an Australian walk into a bar, and find it’s closed – the joke isn’t going to work, so never mind.

This multi continental Electro punk pop outfit have gained their renown simply by manipulating media, shooting sliver bullets at the fashion world and recently releasing ‘We Don’t play Guitars’. The threesome had originally started out as an art project in Munich two and half years back, a DIY electrical charged head-****, a ‘pre’ and ‘post’…dare I say it…’Electroclash’ entity with an endearing punk rock ethos and the resonance of feminist’s scream (with a bit of delayed echo I might add)

Tonight is touch and go, with the situation of all the bars being closed, nobody seems to be charged up for the show. It’s either that, or the crowd are toooooooo cool to be excited. So OK, three albums in their belt (imports/remixes etc) and despite the ‘style over substance’ prejudice, these girls have churned out some very good tunes, so the music is there. And of course, so is the art. The stage backdrop is a huge projector screen with flickering image stills of what seems to be a women clammed in black PVC at different angles. As soon as the chicks are on stage, every mullet and lob-sided haircut is suddenly bobbing up at the front, the place is packed but the layout of the venue allows you to mope around at the back with the option of standing on a chair to get a clearer view. Artfully spliced home movies are screened as rip into their opener ‘Euro Trash Girl’ accompanied by robotic dances and choreographed foot stomping. Eventually, things are taken more up-beat with songs like ‘Kaltes Klares Vasser’ and of course ‘We Don’t Play Guitars’. The latter of the track featured the newest addition to the Chicks unique stockpile of gear, a leather belt that triggers midi notes and can be played like a guitar once removed…wow! The crowd seem very receptive, but the volume of applause after each song is clearly debatable, it’s even noted by the by the Chicks themselves "…what…you guys don’t cheer much do you? There is a cheer after that particular question/statement, but clearly, no band like this should ever have to be forced into that situation.

****ing about with the very ethos and idea of Rock’n’roll with the presence of pop art is what the chicks do best live (at one point they use metal wall scrapers on each microphone as an addition to their percussion). So despite everything, high expectations where met – house/punk, beats you can dance to, animated presence, moving images on the side all to boot – how can you lose? Maybe a good challenging idea will always attract the uber cool fans, but it seems that quite often, the two don’t always mesh.

Photos by Layla Ragan