Gig review: Honeyblood

Honeyblood are a frustrating concern. Their sharp alt-pop colours, so vibrant on record, are irreparably muted on stage. Since forming in Glasgow in 2012, these BBC 6 Music favourites have built a reputation as fine purveyors of dark, fuzzy, honey-dew bubblegum pitched somewhere between The Kills, Throwing Muses and Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac. Yet on the final night of their tour to promote second album Babes Never Die, during what should have been a celebratory homecoming triumph, practically every song merged into one continuous stream of grey sonic sludge.

Musical twosome Stina Tweeddale (L) and Cat Myers (R) in hat - aka Honeyblood. Picture Robert Perry 20th Oct 2016

Honeyblood ***

St Luke’s, Glasgow

Singer/guitarist Stina Marie Claire Tweeddale and drummer Cat Myers are smarter than your average indie group, but they need to work out a way of successfully transposing three-minute gems such as Justine, Misery Queen and, especially, the magnificently catchy current single Sea Change to a live setting.

Performing in a converted church where an enormous pipe organ overshadowed their efforts, the duo did at least try to engage the crowd via some admittedly strained banter with Sebastian their talking synthesiser – “his” bowel-quaking bass notes muddied the sound even further – and, incongruously, a moment of visual humour during which the peroxide-coiffured Myers was briefly replaced behind the kit by an uncanny doppelganger. It seems that few in the audience noticed the difference. Honeyblood can and should be better than this. Maybe one day.