01-10-2009 BugGirl

Supports: Placebotox; Venue: Db’s, Utrecht (The Netherlands)
By: Sabine van Gameren

In db’s, Utrecht (The Netherlands) there were some bands playing on a quiet Thursday evening. All punk-ish, the one a little better than the other, but each brought its own crowd.

Placebotox was the first band to see. They are coming from The Netherlands, but found it interesting enough to speak a whole lot of German to their audience. Besides the fact that it was just really cheesy and cheap humor, it would have been better if they stick to one language. Vocals from guitarist Christian were poor and far from powerful and his guitar work was not exactly brilliant either. Even though it is punk and all seemed to be allowed, there are plenty better musicians to find. Vocals from bassist Anne were a bit better and more pleasant to listen to. Drums by Maik were ok. Overall, this band reached a level that should be mentioned too: The worst band I have seen live in 2009 and as our dearest readers might have noticed, there are quite some bands I have seen. Luckily they brought a couple of friends, so their stage presence was not completely a waste of time.
To say there is no hope for this trio would be unfair, drunk people have the tendency to like everything so there might be a market for them. When they get some more control over their instruments, the vocals become a bit more stable and their so called humor does not take over half of their stage time I would surely like to see the band again to see if they impress me more. Until then, keep on practicing. Maybe the army can borrow you a bunker?!

Second on stage is BugGirl. For sure they make a contrast compared to the first band by the immense difference in instrumental control. BugGirl seems to take it all a bit more serious. The Australians decided to come over to Europe and tour around for quite some times. On their calendar there are few dates mentioned with the prestigious Peter Pan Speedrock.The duo might look a bit lonely on the stage, just but the lack of a bassist is not disturbing at all. The female vocals are raw and fill up all the emptiness in combination with the guitar. In some points the band might remember me to the band Skew Siskin, as their music stand as steady as rock. The band played a couple songs from their just released EP “Blood, Sweat & Beers” and when you heard the EP you might come to the conclusion that BugGirl is a band you better see live. Their performance got interrupted for a minute when some broken strings interfered with the rock and roll. The band caught up after that and showed that this is an evening of contrast until the end.