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Robots In Disguise certainly did not disappoint with their brand of girlie electro fun-punk. Dee Plume and Sue Denim may be accused of style over substance with their matching, straightened-to-within-an-inch-of-its-life hair, and aeronautically-themed outfits. But the substance is there in spades. There are inevitable comparisons to be drawn with other bands in a similar vein – Le Tigre, Peaches and so on – but the Robots definitely hold their own, and the slightly subdued audience soon livened up.

The links with The Mighty Boosh (they appeared in episodes and in live shows) are always going to be picked up on, and now those links are no longer active, it seems the bandwagon-jumping music industry have cast the Robots aside.

So, they have a pledge system for making their fourth album, whereby fans can go to their website, pledge money towards the making of the record and purchase it in advance. Money also goes to The Alzheimers Society. Now that’s what I call Girl Power. And they play their own instruments – take note, Spice Girls.

Support came from local girl duo Dead Dog In Black Bag, a kind of Shampoo for the 21st century, and Scream Club, a hip-hop flavoured electro outfit who looked like they had stepped off the set of an early ‘90s TV show on Nickelodeon. And, in between, DJ Molly Malone kept the energy up with her, as usual, spot-on tunes.

The venue seemed to want to make this gig as unpleasant as possible for the punters, with a distinctly sulphuric smell pervading the room, shockingly poor sound quality (it seemed the equipment was there, but not the people who knew how to operate it) and the bar closing at 10.30pm, barely halfway through the Robots’ set. Perhaps they had something against girls with guitars. But despite all this, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
Digital, 8 April
4/5
Angela Barnes

This entry was posted on Monday, April 12th, 2010 at 3:32 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.