PINS Live At The Electric Ballroom

Manchester’s PINS were the first of two support acts for Drenge last night at Camden’s Electric Ballroom. Unfortunately for Drenge and Big Deal, they were too good to be followed.

Their opening song, ‘Lost Lost Lost’, set the tone by decreeing ‘I feel alright / I feel so young / There’s nothing else / I want to become’. Youth and outsider culture doesn’t make the headlines much these days but, with PINS delivering polemic of this quality, it won’t be long before a Daily Mail journalist implodes with fear.

The current single ‘Young Girls’ has a hint of The Clash about it but they make it seem far more effortless. Teenage girls are going to want to be this band and frankly, when the teenage boys stop drooling so will they.

Immediately following was ‘Oh Lord’, another new song and the standout of the set. The guitar riff treads a similar path to Joy Division’s ‘She’s Lost Control’, whilst the aggressive harmonies and subsequent swirling guitars create a wall of noise to rival The Horrors circa ‘Primary Colours’.

TT hasn’t seen a band which looks and plays with this much style and skill simultaneously like this for some time. Drummer Sophie Galpin can clearly hammer the skins as well as anyone but she has moments of show stealing flair which are a joy to behold. Meanwhile, when singer Faith Holgate puts down her guitar for ‘LUVU4LYF’ and ‘Girls Like Us’, she transforms into a mesmeric force of nature.

There have been comparisons have been made to Vivian Girls, Best Coast and the Dum Dum Girls in the past but, as PINS approach the release of their second album make no mistakes, there is only one PINS and they are about to blow the competition away.