Without much fanfare, one of the most under appreciated frontwoman brought one of the most under appreciated punk/reggae groups to the Echo last night. With her Rasta affected German meets British accent, singer Ari Up along with original bassist, Tessa Pollitt, have a revamped line-up (though Paul Cook’s daughter, Hollie, was not on keys as expected) and a brand new album called, Trapped Animal.

But before the Slits took the stage we were greeted by Weave!, a really exciting local band. They seemed like they were the perfect opening band for the Slits; dubby, funky, and punky, but they also had more of a NYC/Mudclub-era kind of edge to them as well. In fact, singer/bassist Ivory “Black Powder” Lee will make you think of that she was once in ESG, with her “Moody” approach.

By the time the Slits hit the stage, everyone was stoked for a punky reggae party and that’s exactly what they got. Ari Up took the crowd through a few new songs, as well some some classic Slits tracks from their 1979 debut, Cut. Hardcore fans were also excited to see the band pull out some lesser known numbers from even earlier, songs that were issued on the The Double Peel Sessions in 1988.

Here’s some more shots from the show:



(You can see the Mylar backdrop, so you can imagine how cool it looked with all the stage lights bouncing all around. However, Ari Up didn’t feel the same way and she kept telling the lighting guys to “stop with the disco lighting” They didn’t really listen to her, because they kept on with the strobes and colored lights all night, no matter how many times she said, “I need white light, and stop with the disco shit!” )
Here’s a clip of the jungly and dubby, “New Town,” from the first album…and catch Ari complain about the lights at the end!
CLICK HERE!
And this is a taste of “Shoplifting,” another classic from Cut.
CLICK HERE!

Weave!’s Ivory Lee joined the crowd and was really digging the Slits, and then I caught her saying hello to a friend, who I recognized as, F Girl (or Noel M) from another great local band, Fangs On Fur. FOF has a great blend of post-punk, classic punk, goth and deathrock, and are not too scary/scared to put on a show.

And everybody loved Ari’s energy on “Let’s Do the Splits,” from their Peel Sessions
CLICK HERE!
(doesn’t that look like a fun crowd?)

Tags: Ari Up, F Girl, Fangs On Fur, Hollie Cook, Noel M, Tess Pollitt, The Echo, The Slits, Weave!

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 13th, 2009 at 4:55 am and is filed under Daniel Siwek's Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.