Christopher Owens, Girls leading lad, beams conviction with his thin, yellow, locks posing as a wall in front of his face, and heavily resembling the late and great Kurt Cobain, unconfident and all. Although the band is not really known for its good looks, their tunes will give you all the impression you need, and will win every heart most of the time, guaranteed. I was lucky enough to catch Girls, a few nights ago at the Wonder Ballroom here in Portland. The stage was engulfed with large flower arrangements resembling a funeral or wedding, I couldn’t decide. Girls’ live set included tunes from their debut album, cheekily titled, Album, their intoxicating EP, Broken Dreams Club, and their newest release and LP entitled, Father Son and Holy Ghost.
I tried to look past the fact that it seemed to take the band a bit to warm up, I found myself a bit bored through the first half of their set. Girls really went in a different direction with their new record, and I wasn’t sold. Songs like “Honey Bunny”, “Laura”, and “Alex” blended together as if they were one song. It wasn’t until crowd favorite “Heartbreaker” off the Broken Dreams Club EP, I was brought back to life.
In conclusion, I am still on the fence, both about “Father Son and Holy Ghost” and about Girls live show. Owens’ has definitely ripened into a well rounded recording artist. The band is holding their own and mixing it up with sounds of country-western, doo-wop and blues. I won’t give up the faith, they won my heart once, they can do it again.
by Ginger Hebert – meowpoww@gmail.com
