Lips Can Kill (Pollypickpocketz, Tokyo Taboo, Healthy Junkies, Yur Mum)
The Angel, Nottingham – 4/3/2022
The Angel Micro Brewery is home to one of Nottingham’s finest small venues, a converted chapel. Tonight the sermon begins with Pollypikpocketz who have a rhythm driven attack that puts fun at its core. The rapid fire vocals and eclectic nature of the band influences mean you’re always finding new things within the ‘pocketz’ writing. While Myura Amara leads the line skilfully on the mic there’s no shortage of stage craft on view with both Frog and Mat Kiki as enthusiastic as ever. Powering from the back is the solid and dependable Shane Howard. Pollypikpocketz shine because they are full of personality but not egos. Tonight they play a blinder.
While Dolly Daggerz astounds on pole and vocals let’s just pause for a moment to give a shout out to Mickey Danger and the guys for their sheer consistency and excellence. Tokyo Taboo have great songs, full of big hooks and open arm beats, and the delivery is tonight, as it is every time, spot on. The Daggerz/Danger combination is also special too. It’s at times near telepathic in how these two operate. And then of course there’s that jaw drop when you hear that voice coming from someone spinning around performing gravity defying feats on a pole. Daggerz has quite a repertoire of moves when she’s not airborne too. Tokyo Taboo are a unique, and tonight quite majestic.
Healthy Junkies bring a touch of new wave chic thanks to Phil Jones signature guitar work and Nina Courson’s delicious vox. With the bass and drums operating in solid unity there’s masses of room for the music to flow in an organic way. We get a couple of welcome surprises too. Nancy Sinatra’s ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’ is covered complete with Courson using a willing (actually very willing) crowd member as a pavement. As a finale we’re treated to ‘Mayday’ with Pollypikpocketz’ Frog duetting on vocals. It’s a great way to round off what has been an all too short set (each band rotates around each night and plays the same length show).
Last up in the now rather warm venue are duo Yur Mum. This is an act that have made some serious waves in recent times with Bassist and singer Ani amazing with her skills. Not to be outdone Fabio on drums is also something of a master of his craft. Between them they produce such a full sound you find yourself wondering if they’ve hidden a third instrumentalist under the stage. Nope!, it’s just them. ‘Black Rainbow’ is just as much of a belter live as it is on video. The whole set is steely strong but this tune is the one that could gateway the band to a much bigger audience with its ‘Mansions Of The Lord’ overtones. Yur Mum rock, pure and simple. They close the Lips Can Kill show leaving a very happy crowd indeed. Let’s pray this tour returns again for another outing soon.
Review and photos by Gary Trueman