Live Review: Death Valley Girls - Moth Club, London 01/03/2023
As the predominantly black-clad punters slowly fill the iconic glittering-gold cavern of Hackney's MOTH Club, they file past a shadowy merch stand which, beneath the neatly spread assortment of CD's, vinyl records, t-shirts and pin badges, is draped in a jack-o'-lantern table cloth. This may seem incongruous given that tonight's show takes place on the last day of February but maybe less so when you consider the headline act of the night are garage rock mystics Death Valley Girls. The Iggy Pop endorsed, LA-based mystics often employ occult themes in their songs and imagery and in the Death Valley Girl world, every night is Halloween night.
Conjuring hard-hitting blends of crude 70's rock & roll, droning organ-driven rhythms and cosmic, invoking lyricism, the band recently released Islands in the Sky, their fifth studio album. Tonight's show, day one of a short four city UK tour in support of the new LP, offers the first chance for the powerful, spellbinding tracks that comprise Islands in the Sky to be cast over a UK audience.
As the lights dim and the band (lead-singer Bonnie Bloomgarden, guitarist Larry Schemel, drummer Rikki Styxx and bassist Sammy Westervelt) take to the stage, a hypnotic wall of noise begins to build. California Mountain Shake, the first track on the new release, provides an ominous and brooding opener with haunting synth organs underpinning tender, spectral vocals. The seance has begun. After seamlessly transitioning through the first few numbers, Bloomgarden takes time to address the audience. "We don't have a place this cool in our town" she says of the iconic, cool-kid honeypot that is MOTH Club. "It looks just like her bass" she gushes looking out at the shimmering-gold vaulted ceiling before gesticulating at bandmate Sammy Westervelt's glittered-up bass guitar.
Bonnie Bloomgarden is an ebullient frontwoman who consciously takes every chance to engage and connect with her audience. Lead-single from the new album Magic Powers galvanizes the crowd with its spiky guiar riffs and pulsating organ rhythms before Bloomgarden's tiny frame disappears from view as she climbs from the stage to join, and eventually become absorbed into, the sea of excited bodies which bob and churn as she regales them with yearning verses and soaring choruses, dishing out heartfelt hugs to a willing few in the process. This seance is different. It is not an audience with the dead but a celebration - a catharsis - for the living.
For all of the gruff and irreverent Stooges-style instrument thrashing, Death Valley Girls offer a more salubrious side, frequently championing themes of self-love and healing. "This next song is for everybody here" Bloomgarden tells the audience before the band launch into anthemic title-track Islands in the Sky, an empowering invocation to relinquish self-doubt and embrace imperfection. ("You're in charge of the perception of your life. You can choose what you keep and what you leave behind"). Death Valley Girls, almost ten years since their first release, remain with their fingers firmly on the social pulse, Bloomgarden also takes time to herald the "sexual revolution" before launching in to anthem-for-the-age I'm a Man Too from 2016 album Glow in the Dark.
After a short encore, furthering their kindly credentials, the band head straight for the merch stand to chat with fans and pose for photographs, the pumpkin-patterned tablecloth looks a little less cluttered as the merch guy busies himself with a huddle of sated punters.
Words by Elliot Houchell
