Chinnerys in Southend is a venue that I have heard a lot about in the
past and is a venue where some really big named bands have played such
as Pearl Jam, Thunder, Stereophonics and many other bands when they first
started out. The venue itself is quite a small room with pillers coming
down from the ceiling that are positioned quite well so they don’t
get in your way whilst you are watching the bands, the stage is directly
in front of you from when you walk in the room and the bar is situated
to the back of the room, you can clearly tell that the venue has recently
been through a re-fit as everything looks quite new and exciting, but
unfortunately there was only about 50 people maximum in the crowd throughout
the whole show.
We got to the venue just as the main support band, 586 were setting up,
the band are a 5 piece electro indie band from London and are made up
of three males and two females with guitarist Steve Horry and percussionist
Deborah Coughlin sharing lead vocals. When the band opened up, the sound
was terrible and everything sounding all over the place like a band who
had turned up too late to sound check and had a work experience sound
guy, but luckily a couple of songs in the sound got sorted out and 586
became a really enjoyable band and the highlight was the bands new song
'Dancing On Graves' which sounded like it would fit in perfectly on the
soundtrack to Tim Burton's Corpse Bride animation movie. 586 finished
with 'I’m Not A Monkey', which is a punky sounding “shout
a long” song that could easily get the most boring people jumping
and shouting along. I am really looking forward to hearing more of 586
as they have such a random yet happy party sound and Steve Horry and Deborah
Coughlin's double act on vocals really needs to be experienced as it really
keeps the bands sound fresh and fun.
After a 20 minute break to set up the stage, the Sohodolls took to the
stage and the extremely small crowd that was in Chinnerys tonight moved
a bit closer to the stage but still stood in one of them awkward semi
circle's slightly away from the stage not moving any closer unless someone
else did. The band were set up nicely and all looked the part with 'Weston
Doll' on the left hand side of the stage dressed in a red shirt with a
black waist coat playing the keyboards, looking like the long lost sixth
member of Southend rock band the horrors. Next to Weston Doll was Matt
Lord who was dressed in a black shirt with some red braces and a matching
red tie on and to be fair he was totally running the show and taking up
the small stage with his huge double bass. Next to Matt was Maya Von Doll
who was dressed in black shorts and a white blouse looking every part
the lead singer that she is. To the side of Maya was guitarist Toni Sailor
who was dressed up in black trousers a white shirt and a hat you would
expect any member from a sleazy rock band to wear. To the back of the
stage was drummer Paul Stone dressed in black and quite out of site being
dwarfed behind Matt's double bass.
The band kicked straight into their first song 'Trash The Rental' and
it sounded exactly the same as it does from the bands debut album 'Ribbed
Music For The Numb Generation' which was quite impressive as some bands
can’t pull off the same sound live as they do on cd but luckily
for the Sohodolls they aren’t one of those bands. The band played
through the majority of their 'Ribbed Music For The Numb Generation' album.
When the Sohodolls played 'I'm Not Cool' it reminded me of The Vincent
Black Shadows as the song has the same style cabaret sound and is a really
upbeat catchy song that even got the small crowd at Chinnerys tonight
moving. 'Prince Harry' was another outstanding performance and is quite
a fan favourite song with its quirky electro beats and upbeat vocals.
The highlight for me was when the band played 'Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang'
as it is one of the best songs on their album and it sounding so good
live and the whole band put maximum energy in especially Maya who was
all over the stage even dropping to the floor in places.
When the band finished with 'Stripper' and left the stage straight after
I was pretty sure they would take to the stage again to play another couple
of songs but it never happened and the show was officially over.
Overall it was a good show, the main disappointments were that the venue
is quite small and the lack of people at the show really didn’t
help especially with the crowd being the least motivated crowd I have
seen in some time, the other disappointment was that the Sohodolls only
played for about 45minutes which wasn’t long enough in my opinion
but the band did make up for the lack of time on stage by playing a totally
stunning set that was full of energy and style.
Review By Trigger
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