The evening began with something of a homecoming for the grunge-tinted dream rock of Labyrinthine Oceans, the evening’s only support band, who began in the North East. A haze of guitar settled across the room as they opened their catalogue, blending guitar-driven ambience with sultry vocals, each track refusing to conform to any genre.
‘Pinch’ soon followed, a swaying, trance-like song with guitar leads reminiscent of Radiohead, its overdriven guitars drenched in reverb-soaked layers. The set continued, drawing audiences deeper into their grit-filled dreamscape, leading to the title track from their latest EP, ‘for the flesh and for the machine’. The track's captivating swell and burst held the audience. Still, it was vocalist Julia O’Neill-Walton who commanded them, singing directly to the crowd, her gaze feeling as if it fell on each person in turn, drawing the room under her control. Labyrinthine Oceans also treated the audience to the first taste of their upcoming release ‘Vanishing Act’. At the same time, it may have been its live debut, but it held the room as firmly as the tracks they already knew, combining all that is great from their last EP into one potent delivery.
Once the dreamscape was set, so was the stage. Sconces bookended it, their candlesticks lit, pairing with the cascading twinkle of fairy lights, creating the perfect ambience to cast the circle the crowd would all be drawn into. With that, the coven arrived. Vocalist Grace Kelly, guitarist Eliza Lee, bassist Katie Jane, and drummer Alannagh Doherty entered the stage with all the poise and nonchalance of the otherworldly figures they conjure.
Reaching her arms out to the crowd, GK, part Florence Welch, part Siouxsie Sioux (if bitten by a vampire, of course), bound the room under her spell before the first note even started. The incantation began with ‘Carmilla’, its sustained notes more hypnotic live, the perfect balance of power and delicacy beneath a red lip made even more striking under the green stage lighting.
Their combined draw continued as ‘Mother Knows’ roared into life on Doherty’s stalking beat, with the addictive guitar-and-bass pairing of Lee and Jane further commanding the room. The groove was insatiable, melding industrial soundscapes with GK’s velvety tones, each musician providing another layer to the rich lyrical storytelling. Kelly sang that “[she’ll] burn in Hell for this” and in that moment, the whole room would have joined her in damnation. Then came ‘3x3’, full of punk attitude and raw, unfiltered rage. As confrontational as its meaning is, the delivery was anything but; the sisterhood at its heart reached from each member to every person in the room. If what you give to the universe returns threefold, this was the proof, the crowd mirroring Lee’s jagged riffs and Doherty’s stomping percussion.
This was followed by fan favourites ‘Liar Liar’, which proved the perfect sing-along with the audience emphatically carrying the refrain “Liar liar, pants on fire”, back to GK. At the same time, the anthemic ‘Lidocaine’, with its hypnotic lead work from Lee, and earworm ‘Darla’, a song about the sanctity of female friendship, drew the room closer.
It’s that sense of connection that makes the collective ‘coven’ such a fitting name for the band; every member of the audience (whether an ex had wronged you, stood with your best friend, or just had a penchant for the gothic classics) was joined as one.
It’s this ability to create atmosphere that made the show even more powerful. From the classic Zeppelin-esque melodies and The Cure-infused guitars to flashes of Nine Inch Nails industrialism and Sisters of Mercy-esque macabre, the band's influences are worn on their sleeves, not as imitation but as a transformation into something entirely new. Snippets of 1996 cult classic The Craft introduced the equally riotous ‘Hex’, and the chatter of a murder of crows preceded ‘Eighteen Crows’, inspired by The Crow. Yet, this was never an imitation. If anything, the night made it even clearer how entirely Venus Grrrls' own world this is. The whole experience immersed audiences deeper into this world of the arcane and otherworldly, each track casting another dizzying spell of unrelenting guitars, tension-building bass, and transfixing vocals.
The night closed on two final tracks from their latest release, ‘Eve’, surging with emotional confession from GK and the sharp bite of guitar, and ‘Wormfood’, which played on the band’s ability to weave delicacy into something visceral, with Jane and Doherty building richly layered melodies, as Lee howled in her solo much to the crowd's delight.
Whether you’d been a fan of the band from their beginning or had just stopped by after being transfixed by their latest EP, one thing was clear: you left a member of a covenstead, grounded in a celebration of women, strength, and the peculiarities of everyday life.
Megan-Louise Burnham
Image: 'To Die as Lovers May' Official EP Cover