Blood Red Shoes, Queen Kwong, Gen and The Degenerates: Arts Club Loft, Liverpool

Blood Red Shoes

Blood Red Shoes finish their headline tour with a set of blisteringly hard and heavy, as Getintothis’ Will Truby gets his rock on.

On a night of yet another cynical and miserable political event (tonight is Question Time), we can think of no other way to exorcise our existential dread of the future than with a rock show.

And it’s Blood Red Shoes, no less, so we’re fully expecting to come away with buckets more optimism and dopamine than we came in with.

The night is started early with local rockers Gen and The Degenerates, who take to the stage at the early hour of 7.30.

Even so, they’ve garnered a healthy cluster of enthusiastic fans/friends, which essentially function the same for an opening band.

They’ve got the 80s rock look down; ludicrously long haired guitarists, references to cocaine (their single, in fact), and a healthy portion of headbanging in most songs.

Regardless of whether you like 80’s influenced classic rock, they’re a fairly captivating band to watch live. Each member has the energy of a hyperactive toddler, and at no point does the momentum let up. It’s raw, messy and enthusiastic.

Despite a few blips here and there, the band execute a pretty energetic and punchy set, and probably walk away with a few new fans.

Quick check in on Question Time; Johnson’s not even showed up yet, which was maybe the best decision for him at this point.

Main support for tonight, Queen Kwong, arrives with little fuss or theatrics; she just picks up her guitar. And the room goes completely quiet. Pretty damn impressive

In fact, Queen Kwong’s Carré Calloway has a quietly captivating presence about her at all times. She just exudes such an intensely electric energy at all point; eye grabbing without needing any gimmicks or theatrics, which makes her a truly enthralling character to watch live.

Her voice is absolutely phenomenal, and she has such a range, from creepy breathy whispers to full on shrieks and howls. It’s rock singing but so much more,

Their music has a dark and doomy vibe, pulsing and ominous, and has a habit of spring boarding headlong from distant and quiet verse into raucous and disastrous choruses.

In the quieter moments, where it’s just her and the guitar, I’m reminded of the tender intensity of Mitski.

Calloway’s band are stone cold solid as well; they perform with a disarming fury we’re not sure we’ve ever seen before, pounding and attacking their instruments into the abyss of noise.

The Happiest Place is the monstrous centrepiece of this set, with feral thudding drums and noisy and catastrophic guitars, the song makes a good case to be the soundtrack to the apocalypse.

We’re left in a stunned silence after five cataclysmically loud songs. Queen Kwong can definitely come again.

Blood Red Shoes interview: “You don’t actually know what your role is in the universe when that stops”

In the gap before Blood Red Shoes take to the stage, we check back in on Question Time. Boris Johnson has now arrived, but has so far been laughed at for condemning lying and refuses to talk about much other than Brexit. Maybe he’d have been better off at home.

By the time Blood Red Shoes arrive, we feel like we’re ready for Brighton’s best and loudest. We weren’t even close to ready.

Tonight’s set consists of a good chunk of their back catalogue, surrounded by highlights from the new album.

Diversity is clearly key to Blood Red Shoes’ success – though each song is underpinned by heavy riffs and pounding drums, style and attitude varies throughout. The all-out punk of Black Distractions and Red River are the pinnacle of intensity, while remaining quite straightforward in their aim; loud, fast and non-stop.

By contrast, Mexican Dress and Light It Up double down on groove and melody.

One of the main appeals of seeing Blood Red Shoes live is seeing two pretty different onstage personas work so harmoniously together; drummer Steven Ansell is a full on energetic rock drummer, who handles the majority of the crowd chat and could not be talked down from standing on his drum stool if you tried; and guitarist Laura-Mary who has that mysteriously stoic rocker going on,

As the two backing musicians leave the stage, drummer Steven Ansell kicks proceedings off with the aggressively busy drums of Cold. This ushers in a set of older material played by just the core members. You’d think the band would suffer for losing two members, but if anything it feels like they just got louder.

And there’s no confidence lost either, which just goes to show they’re fully capable of pulling off the same tricks they always have. Black Distractions finds Carter riffing up against the audience and Ansell on top of his stool again, preaching to the converted.

By the time that the two backing members rejoin, and four newer songs are played, you’d be forgiven for assuming the energy must have peaked by now. But there’s so much momentum in this set, it feels like we’re hurtling towards some unimaginably steep cliff.

Though much as it’s a joy to see just the two of them perform, the full four piece band sounds absolutely colossal. The addition of bass and synths in songs like Eye To Eye really make all the difference, and though the band may have taken a step away from the punky garage rock of their early days, there’s no loss of intensity.

Blood Red Shoes were great last night! pic.twitter.com/xiAIvwN7tx

— Ross (@yesthisisross) November 22, 2019

Main set closer Last Bar In Bangsar is a monstrous headbanger, and seems like a definite high point to leave the gig on. But they’re not done with us yet,

They bring out Queen Kwong for their new collaboration, Kid Don’t Be So Shy. It’s a dirty little disco rock song that exhibits the best of both acts, which leaves me wondering why rock artists don’t collaborate that much. It’s a good blend of both musicians styles, but ultimately is ultra-catchy and groovy.

Things finally climax when they return to the old faithful of I Wish I Was Someone Better, which finally prompts a bit of movement in the crowd. It’s a phenomenal song, and proves that the old material is still decades off their best-by date.

We finish with This Is Not For You, and we glance around the room to see a crowd of people absolutely enraptured by one of the most enduring and electrifying indie rock acts in the UK.

As the band finish up their last night of the headline tour, and a culmination of two months of touring, and we honestly couldn’t imagine a better send off.

Images by Getintothis’ Peter Goodbody