Old Woollen, Farsley, Leeds 21st February 2024
In the opening song, Phoebe Killdeer and Melanie Pain sing “zig zag wandering, just like that”. Dressed like a vintage clothes shop crashing into an episode of Gerry Anderson’s retro-futurist TV show, UFO, the tinsel headpiece still defies description. Songs zig-zag and wander like an Ab Fab post-punk funk band. Tonight’s headliners, Nouvelle Vague might be all style and cool but their support act are all style and Devo-esque awkwardness.
Mucking about and posing, Melanie and Phoebe crack Gallic-flavoured smiles over songs drawn from five hundred nights in Nouvelle Vague as band members. Now they’re singing, dancing and playing bass to their backing tapes on dead serious songs like ‘Watch Your Step’ (you’re standing on my French foot), ‘Meditations’ (“what the fuck is going on?”) and the hilarious ‘Good Girls’. The latter sees them tell us terrible pick-up stories from tour.
Of course, being French is part of the show and we have a theatrical series of references and comments as they do their disco / post-punk karaoke. Nothing is serious on the surface, even if lyrics might be on a deeper level, the posing, expressions and costumes are next-level arty and the whole thing is a funky, bouncy and delightful half hour.