Girlinky Log - Popdate 11.06.02

Who's that creeping around the corner, skulking in the back door unnoticed and licking the spilt beer off the bar-room tables? It's Girlinky, preparing for another night of noisemaking, carousing and general onstage unsteadiness, and trying valiantly to keep up their part of the bargain as promised on the poster outside which says 'punk/rock'. Kentish Town was the scene of this aural onslaught, with the soft and fluffy title of 'Jimfest 2002'.

The evening was started with a moody growl by Domesticide, attacking the room with a frenzy of tight riffy chaos and basically ensuring that Girlinky would sound like Leeann Rimes to their Black Sabbath. Young but respectably angsty, Domesticide yanked pop up on stage and kicked its cute little teeth in.

Skipping in the wake of this general destruction, Girlinky launched their own sonic projectile - that is, they turned their amps up from 3 to 3.5. The foursome gave themselves over to the task at hand and cut their best punkrock figures, apart from Sarah, because there's just no way you can look rocky playing a keyboard (sorry Grant), and Rob, who's about as punk as Cliff Richard's casual Sunday moccasin, but who compensated for this by bashing his drums real hard.

Accompanied by a bit of fancy Nicholls-led footwork on the dancefloor, Girlinky crashed their way through the set, culminating in a 'hai! wakarimashita!' so energetic that it reduced guitarist Chris to a seething mass of flailing limbs on the floor, beard askew and legs akimbo, jerking and gyrating like an extra in a bad soap pretending to die of electrocution.

Last up were Scintilla, who proceeded to rip through about twenty songs at a feverish pace. They wowed the crowd with their spot-on harmonies and snappy rhythms. Of particular note was their brilliant cover of the Powerpuff Girls' theme song, which had everyone muppet-nodding along uncontrollably.

It was over all too soon, like a short break to Paris or a really satisfying sneeze...

...back to 2002 popdates