Beabadoobee – Powerstation : September 7, 2022

Beabadoobee, Be-Bop-A-Lula and Awopbopaloobop. Speaking in tongues and the wild and holy spirit of rock’n’roll firing off into pop music as it blew out in 1956 and continues to do so.

Beabadoobee is Beatrice Kristi Laus, singer and guitarist. Born in the Philippines and raised in West London, barely in her twenties and moving faster than the speed of sound since her debut single Coffee. Amassing accolades from the industry and dubbed a fast-rising star. She learned the violin formally, but it was an acoustic guitar and YouTube at age 17 that saw the creation of Beabee.

She has cited the movie Juno from 2007 as inspiration. The soundtrack contains Velvet Underground, Mott the Hoople, Cat Power, Sonic Youth, many Nineties artists but also, lo and behold, Buddy Holly.

The Powerstation is sold out and the floor is packed. Piercing scream-cheers to slice through the top of your skull when the band enters the stage. Jacob Bugden lead guitar, Eliana Sewell bass and Luca Caruso drums.

The band is tight, fast and locked-in from the start, with opening songs Worth It and Together.

Immediately catching the attention are the great bass lines. Sewell looks like Suzi Quatro’s grand-daughter. Cuter and smaller than the original bass-playing Rock Chick from the early Seventies. Fast wall-of-sound rhythms like Douglas Dee Dee Ramone Colvin but also with a similar complexity and authority of James Jamerson, who defined the classic Motown sound.

She Plays Bass is a delight with a close to personified bass leading the song.

BeaBee herself looks a little like Veronica Bennett in her initial Ronettes innocence, before she became Ronnie Spector.

Molly Payton

Molly Payton and her band are halfway through their opening set as I squeeze into the full house. Payton is a young Kiwi singer-songwriter who developed her craft and style in London when she moved there in 2016.

They’re playing a just-released song Do It All the Same. Grunge riffs with a similar garage tone to live Velvet Underground shows.

The singer is a little buried and low in the mix. This improves with a song with the lines back when I was seventeen. The music is subdued and there is a nice husk in her voice which gets stronger and more confident.

There is some Patti Smith in looks and attitude and she has a measured deliberate way of phrasing with occasional reaches into the higher register.

The band around her push out an indie rock sound in a Beths style.

Honey closes their set with a compelling pop rhythm drone and Payton gets to sound a little like Nico.

 Beabadoobee

Beabee and the band are confident and on their game with the discipline and tightness of a Bubble Gum accented Ramones.

At times the lead guitar will drop some judicious shredding riffs, strumming hand fast and blurred.

See You Soon is one of her favourites which is folk pop that she accompanies with an acoustic guitar. She does not have a wide vocal range but she can sound cute and effervescent like Toni Wine did on some of the classic original Archies songs like Sugar Sugar.

Yoshimi Forest Magdalene, It Gets Me So High and Sorry are similar in intent. 

Like the Ramones their hooks are understated and appear simple. There’s a lightness of touch matched to impeccable taste.

Slow things down for some sunshine pop with Sun More Often.

Dye it Red is pop with a bit of an R’n’B shuffle, the Buddy Holly inside the machine.

Beabadoobee come back to encore with a solo acoustic Coffee, and then go out with a rhythmic pop shuffle Cologne. Drop your shit and pick up the phone!

Pure pop for the glorious present moment.

Rev Orange Peel    

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