Moth Club, Hackney
“This venue is my dream come true.”
Alongside a reworked line-up, art-pop’s Meg Remy (U.S. Girls) returns at long last to the glittery crevices of Hackney’s Moth Club for an equally colourful, entrancing set.
Since Remy’s last outing to London prior to the Pandemic, a myriad of things have changed since: namely the birth of her child, tied at the fulcrum of U.S. Girls’ latest LP, Bless this Mess, released earlier this year. “I’m fairly certain this is the only song to exist which samples a breast pump…”, she reveals on-stage with both pride and semi-certainty, before ‘Pump’s pump-induced whirrs and high-tinged percussive triangle tango together. ‘Tux’ and ‘So Typically Now’ extend Remy’s newfound tropes of motherhood into a celebratory, funk-driven danceathon, exclaimed at the chorus (“She was born to rep your body, baby” / “You need a time out, Ask and you shall receive”) as the Michael Jackson-esque, colourful basslines ripple throughout.
For tonight’s genesis, an alternative, perhaps more familiar, reckoning of heartbreak and emotional despair of their earlier material resonate amongst East London's glittery crucible. “I go to pieces, I'm running away…feeling distances increasing” imminently emit Remy's downtrodden outpouring whilst the echoed drum effects of ‘Navy & Cream’ introduce her band to the fray. Invariably, these strike a stronger chord, underscoring the basis of U.S. Girls' critical repertoire against male-centred dominance and abuse: from the hauntingly soulful ‘Window Shades’ (“How could I leave it all up to you?”), to the simmering retribution anchoring ‘Rosebud’ (“It’ll hurt I promise you”).
It is the essence of these very landscapes which pack the greatest punch tonight. Predominantly from their seminal release in 2018, In a Poem Unlimited, ‘Rosebud’ and ‘L-Over’ masterfully paint with vintage-focused swagger of 60’s/70’s soul-rock (akin St. Vincent’s recent Daddy’s Home), brooding with an undercurrent of resentment, bitterness, rage and retribution. Remy seeks conviction for those who have done her (and society) wrong; remaining calmly stoic on-stage, self-lost in a galvanising trance, at last unleashing herself into the crowd for an incandescent outpouring at the set’s conclusion in 'Woman's Work'.
On this outing within Moth Club’s glittery, dream-like aura, Remy has noticeably found solace in her revised sound: grounded in the more intimate on-stage arrangement (amiss with omitting saxophonist, backing singers, lighter percussion) in which U.S. Girls' pastiche of 70’s funk/disco and 80’s art-pop plays out to varying effect. Much of 2020’s Heavy Light sinks like a lead stone, sifting through pages of Nick Cave’s balladry-songwriting, whilst Remy’s vocals seemed faded at times, drowned amongst the concoction of rejuvenated genres on display.
Whilst the crowd embark on a myriad of emotional tribulations tonight (temerity, determination, sadness, heartbreak, and euphoria), it is U.S. Girls’ 2015 and 2018 records which shine brightest in their long-standing pertinence and prowess over our current state of affairs - delivering Remy from the stage into the dreamier depths of Hackney’s crucible.
7/10
U.S. Girls' latest LP, Bless this Mess, is out now via 4AD and can be found below.
Photo is courtesy of Dom Bowman whose work can be found here.
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