Gig review: The Pierces

THE PIERCES are a rare phenomena: a US act, serving distinctly American music, who’ve found more success in the UK than at home.

Catherine and Allison Pierce of The Pierces perform on stage. Picture: Getty

The Pierces - Oran Mor, Glasgow

****

Despite having notched up four albums in 14 years – their fifth, Creation, is due for release in September – they’ve only recently broken through over here.

This sold-out show was testament to their growing cult. Backed by a beer-sipping four-piece band, photogenic sisters Allison and Catherine Pierce blessed the hottest night of the year so far with a slick barrage of hooky Californian pop.

Steeped in the euphoric melancholia of 1970s/1980s AOR – each song conjures images of deep orange skies over Sunset Strip – their music cleaves to a specific retro niche. Theirs is a world of beautiful people singing lovelorn FM blues in expensive studios: Fleetwood Mac meets Don Henley’s Boys of Summer. Only a fool would dismiss the best of that genre as inauthentic.

Whenever they skate dangerously close to soporific Corrs territory, their songs are rescued from bland disaster by harmonised choruses of irresistible finesse. Their strongest material wouldn’t sound out of place on the soundtrack of a 1980s Molly Ringwald film. That, believe it or not, is a ringing endorsement.

Seen on 14.06.14