Baby Animals were going great guns in the early '90s with a hit album, a second one just released & several high profile tours under their collective belt. That is until record company red tape stopped them in their tracks. Unfortunate then really that they weren't able to reconvene at any point in well over a decade, but with front woman Suze DeMarchi living Stateside & embracing marriage & motherhood it wasn't to be. Until now.
Apparently the band members had all kept in touch & all are present (how many reunions can boast that?) & upon finding themselves with the opportunity & inclination they started jamming on tunes old & new. It is the former group that most interests us on this occasion as this quiet run of shows is designed to showcase their newly-released 'Il Grande Silenzio', a collection of acoustic & stripped-down reworkings of old favourites. However it seems the band had other ideas, treating us to a full rocking set with just a couple of acoustic numbers in the middle to break things up (including a strong, yet almost plaintive rendition of "Don't Tell Me What To Do").
Opening with a fiery "Rush You" (its refrain of "I wouldn't wanna rush you" a tongue-in-cheek reference to their time away, perhaps) with Suze DeMarchi skipping & dancing like a whirling dervish across the stage as though she'd never been away & bassist Eddie Parise grinning like a kid playing his high school dance, the band are tighter than one would expect after so long & look genuinely pleased to be playing to a full room tonight. Of course the hits were always going to be the favourites & with DeMarchi strapping on a guitar for "Break My Heart" & "Painless" they were delivered in fine form. Dave Leslie's guitar work was on the money all night & he even got to share vocal duties on a respectful (if not completely "punk") version of The Damned's "Smash It Up" & sing lead on the first encore of The Police's "Next To You".
Unlike so much early nineties music, the band's songs have aged well & "Working For The Enemy", "One Word" & "One Too Many" all sounded excellent, with "Stoopid" & "Ain't Gonna Get" being particularly rockin'. DeMarchi's voice is as strong as it ever was & her performance was intensely watchable. After expressing their thanks & finishing with a kicking version of "Early Warning" we were told that they'd see us next time & with the band's renewed activity it thankfully seems that the wait won't be so long. Hopefully they'll have the chance to finish what they started & get their due.
(Photo taken by Vanessa Berry)
1 comment:
great review, liked the backround info about the band, as havent really heard of them before.
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