If the idea of a Hollywood actress and three hired hands regurgitating classic rock music sounds like your bottle of Jack Daniel’s, you’d have found plenty to enjoy about The Pretty Reckless’s show. For the rest of us, it was something of an ordeal.
The group sees frontwoman Taylor Momsen, who plays Jenny Humphrey in vacuous US TV series Gossip Girl, re-cast as a Joan Jett-alike with the help of bandmates old enough to be her father.
It’s certainly a formula that’s sold records. The New Yorkers’ second album, this year’s Going to Hell, went Top 10 while the saloon bar rock’n’roll of recent single Heaven Knows topped the charts.
Yet no amount of record sales can disguise the fact that, as a live proposition, The Pretty Reckless are thoroughly unconvincing.
From the sex noises that preceded their entrance, to Momsen’s “rawk” singing voice, to her sweary between-song persona, everything felt forced. The music was similarly heavy-handed — a barrage of recycled Led Zep riffs, bludgeoning beats and Momsen’s abrasive singing voice. Tellingly, the night’s best moment, House on the Hill, was also its most melodic.
Nothing if not eager to please, Momsen dressed in a Union Jack skirt and encouraged the largely female crowd to “scream your goddamn balls off” during Heaven Knows.
But with Momsen and her bandmates exuding about as much chemistry as Cameron and Clegg, balls both real and metaphorical were to remain firmly attached.
Going to Hell, winner of the hotly contested guitar solo of the night award, prompted a mass sing-along and offered a moment of genuine excitement. For the most part, though, this was a pale imitation of rock’n’roll.
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