Girls - Rescue Rooms, Nottingham Live Review 2011

San Francisco outfit Girls have made the trip across the big blue to come and play their music in front us once again - the last time was upstairs at a pub in Birmingham. Now, with album number two, Girls have elevated up to venues such as the Rescue Rooms in Nottingham, which is where we find ourselves tonight. Girls are really one of those bands that you either can't get enough of or you hate more than reality TV - rather like Marmite.

For those of us who love them and were in attendance at the gig, we were in for a treat. The band showed no nerves but had 100% faith in their new material. They kicked off with 'My Ma' which was greeted with cheers and wolf whistles both before and after the track. It did seem that in the event the new stuff didn't go down well, their back up plan was hit out with a well-loved track from the first album: 'Laura', which is, in short, an absolute storm both on record and live.

The mix of old and new was just perfection; at no point did you see the crowed losing interest, which was amazing when you considered that at the start of the night the atmosphere felt pretty low. It seemed that Girls had come along and lifted this crowd, which again, is ironic when you take into account their style of music. It is hardly uplifting but a band did once sing: "why do I listen to sad songs? To make me feel good, when I know I've done wrong." For me, that just says it all and in a way describes why people love Girls' music.

Girls finished off in great style with 'Vomit', clearly one of the best tracks on the new album. If you have never had the pleasure to see these two in action, then you really are missing out. Don't make the mistake of thinking that it is just these two guys on stage, however; there are times when they not only bring a band with them but also a few female backing singers, which they did in Camden. In short: go and see this band and go buy their records. In my opinion, they deserve more recognition and they deserve the likes of Radio One et al playing their music.

4/5

Mark Moore