It’s probably a good job that Deap Vally cancelled their Festival Hub show on Saturday afternoon.
With their driving beats, hot pants and Lindsey Troy’s raw blues screech, they would certainly have stopped traffic – and possibly caused a riot.
As it was, The Haunt could barely contain the pair, who didn’t let up the energy throughout their short set. As frontwoman, Troy was all over the stage – bouncing around on stockinged feet and effortlessly blasting out deep riffs from her guitar while she channelled the power of Janis Joplin and Joan Jett in her vocals.
Meanwhile drummer Julie Edwards was firmly from the John Bonham school, making the riser shake as she beat seven bells out of her kit with massive sticks that looked like they had been fashioned from oak saplings.
Deap Vally are about energy and empowerment – certainly in the case of the driving anti-Valley Girl anthem Gonna Make My Own Money as Troy informs a disapproving family that she’s not going to marry a rich man but “gonna make my own money, gonna buy my own land”.
The drums and guitar set-up has obvious limitations – but it has carried the likes of The White Stripes and The Black Keys through wide back catalogues. It will be interesting to see where Deap Vally go after this initial blast of raw, emotional kick-ass rock.
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