Pretty Girls Make Graves / Lostalone

A certain thing I have noticed in the world of music of late, is the industries fascination with stereo typing and pigeon holing bands. Very rarely these days do we find a band that isn't labelled into the 'NME fashionistas', the 'emo scenesters' or the 'New wave indie.' Whilst these labels in themselves are helpful for any music fan, they also cause great confusion and debate about which categories bands fall into these days.

I don't believe in such narrow guidelines for classing a band as something or other. I can listen to a band and find a whole hybrid of undertones within their image, lyrics and melodies. I thrive on a band that defies any sort of conformity, and one that manages to maintain a status of originality, whilst at the same time being likeable to a wide genre of fans.

Walking into Manchester's Academy 2, this idea of diversity was clearly set out for the return of Pretty Girls Make Graves and their wide fan base. Looking around the room I saw people of mixed ages and 'groups', the excitable teenagers to the drunks ready to head bang to the guitars. (Note; I wouldn't strictly class PGMG as 'head banging' material but this crowd managed to prove me otherwise.)

Support was provided from Lostalone, a three piece glamour-esque rock n roll band who provided a wonderfully loud and catchy set, yet at the same time the guitars and drums drowned out the vocals and made it very hard to understand what was being said unless you already knew the lyrics. Playing such a big venue to only a crowd of 60 was a little daunting for the group, and I think more was needed from them to get the crowd going.

Pretty Girls Make Graves graced the stage like they'd never been away from the UK before. Andrea took her place centre stage, her hair hiding her pretty face as the band launched into some of their old favourites including "The new Romance", "Blue Light" (an amazing slowed down yet jazzed up version), "This is our emergency" and "Something bigger, Something brighter", which all had the crowd moving along, jumping up and down and screaming along with Andrea. For lyrics is one of Pretty Girls Make Graves' most original selling points. Their lyrics are refreshing, they make sense, and they are relatable. As Andrew screamed "Do you remember what the music meant?" I found myself thinking of all the times when music HAD indeed meant something to me, and even more odd I found myself signing along with her and believing everything she said. With 3 albums under their belts now, it was nice to see such a variety of material played, with all the favourites from the new album including "Parade", "Number" and "Pictures of a night scene." Andrea is a breath of fresh air to watch on stage, whilst her band mates work around her stage presence they are in no way over shadowed or forgotten with the use of keyboards and saxophones to jazz the set up. Over a full hour of music was played, and it ended all too soon.

Pretty Girls Make Graves in my opinion are definitely one of the bands of the 'now' era. Their music is meaningful and original, it's screechy in that delectably enticing way and it appeals to both girls and boys, touching on a number of the intrepid human emotions we all face. And with humorous lyrics such as "Oh No! Here comes the girls with the ice-cream who said she didn't get a scoop as big as mine" how the hell can we resist?

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.