Thursday 4th June 2009 @ Thekla, Bristol

Greeted by a criminally small audience, tonight Holly Golightly and long time bandmate Lawyer Dave find themselves playing into a bit of a vacuum. Fortunately, it’s always a special treat to hear the forty-three year old British chanteuse sing and the few that have come out tonight go down as a discerning audience with impeccable taste; so, with everyone gathered closely together, what starts as a vacuum quickly becomes a cosy little hamster bubble in which to enjoy a ramshackle mix of ragtime, blues and rockabilly.

The set is made up of “old songs, and new songs that sound like old songs”, which sums up Holly’s whole back catalogue, really. There’s a real rawness and authenticity about her clattery, folk-rhythm-blues that is hard to come by. That’s what has always made her records so great - from her time backing Billy Childish in all-girl garage group Thee Headcoatees, to her breezier, countrified solo work - and no doubt what caught Jack White’s ear, with whom she duetted on It’s True That We Love One Another from Stripes album, Elephant. Nowadays, even on Bourbon Street the musicians that get the loudest pop are the Teflon slick stunt groups (sigh).

So, what could have been like standing in the middle of a black hole, becomes an intimate, toe tapping treat; the closest any of us will ever come to having Holly play in our front room. There’s a real warmth between the duo on stage, who exchange witty repartee, which transmits to the small audience who laugh along and clap enthusiastically after each tune.

The duo play through a set that scarcely looks beyond 1955 in terms of influence, mixing slide guitar and Blind Blake ragtime finger picking with Holly’s haunting vocals. Of course, no-one here tonight is surprised how great it sounds, the only shock is that there are so few of us. So where the hell was everyone? There was a big time hip-hop group playing The Academy tonight, you say… De La who?

www.myspace.com/hollygolightlyandthebrokeoffs

James Davey