Review - Vivian Girls at the Biltmore Cabaret, April 29 2009

– review and photos by Kate Reid

I really wanted to like the Vivian Girls. But it was tough since I was expecting the intelligent energy of Electrelane but instead got three skags with nice haircuts who barely moved save a few calculated shimmies.

Their sound was good, all swirling feedback and drum drum beat beats, and it’s not that the Vivian Girls weren’t tight – they were. It’s just that each flip of Kickball Katy’s bangs seemed to fan the stench of superiority into the room. The Vivian Girls like to judge, see, and although theirs is the sort of band – noisy and well-groomed in a messy sort of way – I’d form if I had an iota of musical talent, I just can’t get behind these three morons.

Let me try to explain why with an anecdote about the Gallagher brothers. Around the time the members of Oasis were becoming known as wankers, I went to a birthday party where the birthday girl received a copy of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? We were all around 11 at the time and prone to suggestion as all 11-year-olds are.

A popular boy in my class had deemed Morning Glory as the album to own, so when Jenny unwrapped the socially sanctioned CD, I was surprised to see her nose scrunch up as if the album was the stinkiest stink she’d ever smelled. She later asked me if I wanted the CD because even though she liked “Wonderwall”, she didn’t want an album by “a bunch of jerks.”

The Vivian Girls are a bunch of jerks.

Vivian Girls at the Biltmore Cabaret, April 29 2009. Kate Reid photo

Watch their babbling, like-heavy interview on Stereogum if you don’t believe me. The little cunnys slag on the world outside of “the punk community” and come off sounding like three over-grown high school students still fixated on deciding what’s cool. Midway through their set last night, I got a full view of Kickball Katy’s sashaying flat ass: bitch was wearing an Urban Outfitters skirt, I know because I have the same one.

I don’t purport to be from “the punk community,” nor do I describe 9-5ers as “Normals” (again, watch that video for context), but if the Vivian Girls are going to start drawing lines in the sand, they should maybe avoid buying their wardrobe from a retailer that sells punk culture back to the kids who purport to make it. Oh yeah and unless the Vivian Girls’ hometown of New Jersey is suddenly the epicenter for punk, and hell, even if it is, Kickball Katy and the other two dingbats should STFU and show a little respect for people with real jobs.

Wankerdom worked for Oasis so maybe the Vivian Girls are just developing their own brand of spoiled elitism. Somehow I doubt it, though – maybe because like, they don’t seem all that smart. They sound good though, so maybe download some tracks, ignore the umbrage and enjoy. I did take that free Oasis album, after all.