Thursday 05/12/02 Flamingo 50, Your Enemies Friends, Pretty Girls Make Graves @ The Masque, Liverpool

We need more women in the alternative scene. Too long has it been the territory of white male twenty-somethings that had rough teenage years. Tonight is an exception. Both Your Enemies Friend and Pretty Girls Make Graves have female vocalists, and local support Flamingo 50 carry on with the trend.

An energetic melodic punk three-piece; they are by no means made up of delicate girls afraid to rock. Both bassist and guitarist Karen and Louise provide raw vocals that show you these girls mean business.

Having played throughout the UK as well completing a seven date tour of France with Lack of Reason, Flamingo 50 are now planning on recording their debut album for release next year. Three years of gigs have given them a lot of experience at putting on a good show and the Masque Theatre's stage although adequate is hardly fair, and sights should now be set higher.

For some reason the singer in Your Enemies Friends reminded me of Jim Ward of Sparta. I guess it was just how he looked generally, reminded me of Manchester and Brixton last month. Unlike Ward, Your Enemies Friend's singer actually had some charisma on stage and was every bit the front man.

YEF played an eight-song set of post-hardcore sounds akin to those sweeping the US scene in the wake of At The Drive-In's wind-up last year. Five songs from their recent six-track EP, 'The Wiretap' were present with J Clark from Pretty Girls helping out on the keyboard.

Unlike in the sound check the keyboard was barely audible and despite moving around the Masque I could barely here it above the sounds of guitar. No complaints about the guitar itself however, loud and aggressive both lead and rhythm sections made me jibber in excitement. In fact the whole band did and even though I was really looking forward to Pretty Girls Make Graves, I was gutted when their half hour set came to a close.

Well at least I was until Pretty Girls Makes Graves walked on stage ten minutes later. I'd had the opportunity to talk to Andrea Zollo, singer and all round pretty girl earlier in the night about a number of issues related to herself and the band. This is their second visit to the Europe and the UK and Andrea seems glad to be back.

"We did our first European tour for all of August and the first two weeks of September. We made it to the UK but not nearly this extensive. That was such a long tour and so overwhelming since it was our first time in Europe so it felt like I was in a haze the whole time […] I can soak it in a bit more [this time] and actually figure out where we're playing and not be like "What city are we in?" or "What club is this?". We're naturally excited to be here, we didn't come to Liverpool last time."

Some bands hate touring for extended periods and much of this year has seen Pretty Girls Makes Graves on the road both at home in the States and abroad. So has it taken it's toll on the band?

"We've been on tour for almost eight months of the year. It's been way crazy, but this is exciting because it's different. You know what I mean, not all the same places we've been in the states, a lot. So even though we're tired this is all something new and exciting so that makes it better.

Touring is very interesting, (laughs) sometimes it gets very hard when we're not touring with a band with other women in it because I like there to be a good balance so I'm exited to be touring with Your Enemies Friends because Dana's awesome. My friend Natalie came with us this time, that helps us too. I try to bring any girl friends if it's possible to up the gender ratio, this time it's good. There's three of us out of ten that's better than normal!

I feel starved for just something different in conversation. Bathroom talk you know? Every band I've ever played in I've been the only girl in, it's just worked out that way. I've tried to play music with other women in the band it's just not worked out."

If being the only woman in Pretty Girls Make Graves is how it's worked out then we should feel blessed. Andrea has a powerful voice backed by a powerful band. I'd not heard any music by PGMG until the start of the week but when offered the review I knew from their reputation to not turn it down.

Although they are not known to the masses their name is whispered across numerous band forums with their fan base building. Whether correct or not they are consistently mentioned in conjunction with At the Drive In, something Andrea is pained to refute.

"Honestly that drives us nuts. I think they say that for lack of knowing what else to compare us to. We don't get mad if people say that I think it's because our music doesn't necessarily fit into any specific genre."

I don't blame the band for their annoyance at the constant comparisons. PGMG don't sound like ATDI at all and if anything people should recommend Pretty Girls Make Graves because of whom they are.

Go see them next time they're in the UK. They rocked. I bounced.

Photos by Andy Day