Betty And The Id + Miss Halliwell + Motion Figures @ The Victoria, Birmingham – 8th May 2009

Betty and the ID

The Victoria is, as its name suggests, a beautiful old Victorian style boozer, with winding staircases and lavish terracotta decor. It’s just off John Bright Street, round the corner from the site of the legendary Edward’s No 8 Club, and a stone’s throw from Island Rock bar, so it has set up this night in an area of live music heritage both past and present. Inside, the place has been done up in a kooky and modern style, in a similar way to the Rainbow pub in Digbeth. It has attracted a decent mix of student types and locals and manages to be a cut above without seeming too snooty.

Motion Figures

Walking upstairs, I am pleasantly surprised by the turn out even for the first band. I take my authentically served Sebor absinth and settle down to watch Motion Figures. What starts out as a bit of an underwhelming performance turns into a funky and playful workout smacking of Talking Heads, Television and the Patti Smith band. Great influences all. There’s some searing dual guitar interplay in some of the songs and great harmonised vocals, especially from the drummer. The Byrne esque
yelps and howls particularly draw a big smile and thumbs up from myself. They end with a very strong track, building to a massive crescendo, during which the drummer screams himself hoarse, and garner some very healthy applause from the crowd. Very nice. Check out www.myspace.com/motionfigures. Their new EP, ‘Natural’s Not In’ is out now.

Miss Halliwell

Second band, Miss Halliwell, are a bit different. They come on with a darker and more experimental vibe, a la Sonic Youth and The Fall but with definite lashings of originality. I had seen some of the members in another band, The Mallory Heart, so it was interesting to see how they sounded with a different lineup. The opening track caught me from the start with a great vocal line; ‘People say that the West Midlands shouldn’t be allowed on television…its where I live’. Delivered with feeling, wit and menace from frontman Miles. The man adds a good theatrical element throughout, for much of the time singing into two microphones, one of which is heavily echoed and delayed. Other times he smashes the cymbals manically or assembles weird loops of cackles and shouts that he then plays back and overlays. The mix of male and some female vocals works very well. The songwriting is a class above 90 percent of the rest of what is out there and this shines through with glaring obviousness. There are not many bands in Birmingham, or nationally, that are doing something so original and I do hope that Miss Halliwell get somewhere with it. They have a couple of EPs available to buy at www.elementaryrecordings.co.uk and are contributing a live performance soundtrack to independent feature film ‘Die Son! Die’. You can see an extended Miss Halliwell set along with visuals from the film at Go Club at The Old Wharf in Digbeth on Saturday 5th September. Check em out at www.myspace.com/misshalliwell.

Betty and the IDBetty and the ID

The room has been steadily filling for the last hour or so and when headliners Betty and The Id hit the stage the place is packed. This gig is the official launch gig of their new album, ‘The Wrong Side of Everything’, available for now at gigs on a limited edition pressing of 100 copies. It seems a success as, when i say packed, i do genuinely mean so that it is difficult to move. I haven’t seen this at a non high profile gig for a very long time. There must be near to a hundred people in this small upstairs room. Where Betty has gone we may never know, but her collective Id doesn’t disappoint the healthy crowd and proceeds to unleash controlled garage rock chaos right from the off. The sound is bloody brilliant; nice and loud and muscular but crisp and clean at the same time.

Betty and the ID

The band exude a real gripping confidence from the off which makes their complete disregard for image (their singer/keyboardist came on in shabby suit and clutching a farmfoods bag for god’s sake) all the more endearing. You can’t help but nod your head and move up and down to songs such as ‘Bad Girl, Bad Trip’ and ‘Rotary Mind Machine’, which track has an insanely pulsating bass line. The band switch between a guitar/keys/bass and a two guitars/bass line up which makes for lots of musical variety. However, thinking about it, I’m pretty sure I saw all the members play all the instruments at one point or another. When the Id stop (and another great thing about this night is that none of the bands play for too long, just over half an hour each) they are begged back on with genuine feeling for an encore. Again, you don’t see that often at gigs outside of the academy. The sense of gleeful surreality was summed up by their keyboardist’s comment halfway through, ‘I looked down in the middle of that song and all the keys had turned into ducks!’. I loved Betty and The Id.

They were a massive breath of fresh air, as were the other two bands. It was great to see such a well promoted, organised and attended night as Bohemian Jukebox. I’ll definitely be catching some more gigs at the Victoria soon.

Review – Adam Moffatt
Photos – Al Neilson

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3 thoughts on “Betty And The Id + Miss Halliwell + Motion Figures @ The Victoria, Birmingham – 8th May 2009

  1. I couldn’t agree with you more Adam: 3 top class bands. Miss Halliwell get stronger with each performance, and every time I have seen them they do something different (not a band to play crowd pleasers, they do whatever they feel is right, which luckily for us is always exciting and undeniably powerful). Judging by the taster for the film DIE SON! DIE! (now on http://www.myspace.com/elementaryrecordings), the film due out in Aug/Sept will be stunning. Put the 5th sept Old Wharf in your diaries now!

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