Gig review: The Like / Haight-Ashbury

Published on Thursday 2 September 2010 20:26

THE LIKE / HAIGHT-ASHBURY KING TUT'S, GLASGOW ***

American girl bands do it better – particularly the ones from LA – and Californian quartet The Like are well aware of their Go-Gos/Bangles lineage.

That said, their support band Haight-Ashbury – hailing from the west of Scotland but inspired, as their name suggests, by the patchouli-scented psych-folk and hippie MOR of the US west coast – might modestly contest that statement, the Scots themselves conjuring a rich, beguiling sound with just a snare drum, tambourine, fuzz guitar and the exquisite spot-on harmony singing of frontwomen Jennifer and Kirsty.

There's some real grit in the oyster too, but they need to shake off their tentative stage presence.

The Like have bounce and confidence to spare. Singer/guitarist Elizabeth "Z" Berg was brisk and businesslike with her flattery: she loves Glasgow, she's so happy we're all here, now shut up while she and her girls barrel through a pithy set of three-minute indie power pop songs peppered liberally with 60s garage pop references and informed by a whole heap of boy trouble.

Current single Wishing He Was Dead is typical of their modus operandi – distract them with butter-wouldn't-melt backing vocals, while Berg gets to verbally grind her stiletto heel mercilessly into a no-good ex. Their material is effortlessly tuneful but doesn't run particularly deep, and 40 minutes, including a wham-bam cover of The Rolling Stones' Let's Spend The Night Together, feels like more than enough time to get a handle on their pert oeuvre.