Gig review: Kitty, Daisy & Lewis

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis

Oran Mor, Glasgow

****

Encouraged from an early age by mum Ingrid and dad Graeme (both of whom augment their live set-up, alongside veteran Jamaican trumpeter Eddie “Tan Tan” Thornton) to explore an eclectic range of music and instruments, the precocious siblings poured their love of all things retro into an instrument-swapping, microphone-sharing celebration of their 1950s and 1960s influences.

Now in their twenties, the talented trio have embraced a slightly slicker sound and made some concession to the 1970s with the girls’ disco catsuits, their Popcorn intro tape and a dash of funk guitar in the mix. Well, you’ve got to move with the times, right?

In so doing, they have sacrificed some of the raw charm of old for a chance of daytime radio airplay. Manicured new songs Baby Bye Bye and Whiskey were among the more forgettable numbers in the set, stylistically in the same ballpark but unable to compete with their more primal brew of rock’n’roll, ska, swing and R&B or even the simple acoustic town planning blues of Developer’s Disease for impact.

But their attitude carried them through – bitches, busybodies and, not to put too fine a point on it, “a***holes” were all skewered by the girls’ sassy delivery and Lewis’s creamier croon, and their cover of Canned Heat’s Going Up The Country, starring Kitty’s demonic harmonica and Daisy powering away on the floor tom, remained a show-stopper.

Seen on 16.02.15

Gig review: Kitty, Daisy & Lewis - Glasgow