Music > Live Reviews

The Surfrajettes

21/10/24

The clocks may not be due to go back for another week, but the audience at the Waterfront Studio was transported back six decades on Sunday night by Toronto instrumental guitar group The Surfrajettes. Playing the fourth night of their first ever British tour, Shermy Freeman (guitar), Nicole Damoff (guitar), Sarah Butler (bass), and Annie Lillis (drums) served up a generous helping of surf-based sounds, taking us back to the sun-soaked Californian summers of the 1960's, and memories of open topped Cadillacs, beehive hairdo's, and ice cream floats served in shiny American diners. Formed in Toronto in 2015, the band has released two albums, 'Roller Fink' and 'Easy As Pie', and it is tracks from the latter that featured largely in their Sunday night set in Norwich, with earlier tunes and some tasty covers thrown in for good measure.

With an authentic-sounding mix of psychedelic rock and sun-soaked, reverb-drenched surf tunes, presented with a look that is straight out of the 1960's – white go-go boots, red floral mini-dresses and generously piled beehives, The Surfrajettes may be a fun band, but they are also talented musicians. Many of the tracks from their latest album have titles that are inspired by their retro image, and lifted straight off a typical Californian surf-diner menu – 'Clam Chowder', 'Lickety Split' and 'Toasted Western' being just three. Amidst these, and served up between tracks from debut album 'Roller Fink', are some cheeky covers, including an instrumental version of Blondie's 'Heart of Glass', and a nostalgic tribute to the Spice Girls with a rearranged version of 'Spice Up Your Life'. There is also an outrageous mash-up of Britney Spears' 'Toxic' with Edvard Grieg's 'Hall of The Mountain King'. Great fun all round.

Opening support came from Cambridge-based four-piece retro outfit, The Surfisticats. Dressed in matching shirts, and even bringing their own personalised powder-blue surfboard to the party, they really set the mood for the evening, and had everybody's toes tapping. They were followed by Norwich's favourite rockabilly and rock'n'roll trio Those Deadbeat Cats, immediately recognisable by the wonderfully paintwork on Wayne Beauchamp's black and white double bass, and joined by Ron Sayer on guitar and the colourful Daryl Blyth on drums. You know that the support acts are good when the headliners leave their dressing room to come and watch, and take photographs, which is exactly what happened tonight at The Waterfront Studio.

If you want to catch The Surfrajettes before they leave the UK, you will have to hot-foot it to Birmingham's Night Owl tonight, or make the long journey across the Atlantic to catch one of the band's upcoming US dates in November and December. But, for those of us at the Waterfront Studio, it was as 'Easy As Pie', and a deliciously fun night out as well.