GIG REVIEW: The Gossip [Women That Ruin]

Women That Ruin

GIG REVIEW: The Gossip

Posted on March 23, 2008 1:51 PM
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The Gossip
Shepherd's Bush Empire, March 21st

Review by Zarina Raja

Beth Ditto did it again. She completely obliterated Shepherd’s Bush Empire last night, leaving us gasping for breath and clinging on for dear life. She put on a fast, furious and frantic show – I don’t think that there has been a time when she hasn’t.

Saturday night’s performance explicitly portrayed a woman bursting through boundaries and quite frankly not giving a f***. You could see the adrenaline pumping through her veins as she screamed into the cowering microphone.

As soon as she set foot on stage, an intimidating energy soared through the venue, firmly grasping people’s attention and swallowing them whole in one wide lip-sticked gulp.

Ditto is an enviable mass of talent. She exudes an arresting charm that makes you stop and stare as her heaving cleavage smothers her unfathomable shrieking lungs.

Shepherd’s Bush watched in fascination as she let the music take over her entire soul and as she put every last ounce of life into the set. As the sweat slowly dribbled down her face, it mingled with the gloopy black mascara that streamed from her eyes. Her hair - teased in to an afro – grew smaller as time went on, shrinking comparatively to The Gossip’s guitar-fat tunes.

They played the classic Gossip songs but also played a noticeable amount of newer stuff, giving fans a taste of what is to come.

‘You go and save the best till last,’ Beth sang before the last song. Everyone knew what was coming but no-one could have imagined what was to follow.

Standing In The way of Control had barely got going before Beth beckoned to the audience to join her on stage. One. Two. Three and then whoooooosh as hundreds of excited fans ran forward and clambered onto the stage.

Beth, meanwhile, jumped among the remaining audience members, catching various vocals but mainly enjoying dancing in the middle of a scrum of Gossip-thirsty fans. She eventually made her way back to the stage but immediately got lost in the jumping, squirming and chanting mass that had accumulated on the stage.