Live Music Review: Diet Cig at Rough Trade

First up are Spook School, a queer four-piece from Glasgow and there is clearly something in the water up there as they have that classic sound of bands such as The Vaselines and Teenage Fanclub - they wouldn't have been out of place at last week's Indie Pop All Dayer. To describe their drummer as gregarious is an understatement, making all of the between song announcements despite not having a microphone. Having been on tour with Diet Cig, they are spending some of their time teaching the Americans all about Gina G. Highlight of the set is Binary, a song about being non-binary, which features the chorus "010101..." and is one of the reasons that Spook School have become my favourite new band.

Then it's time for Diet Cig, in town touring to promote their album Swear I'm Good At This, released earlier this year. The band are just that little bit shambolic, which makes them incredibly exciting, to paraphrase the old cliché, if they don't know what's going to happen, the audience have no idea what to expect. Aside from the great songs and energetic performance, the highlight is when singer Alex tells an audience member, "if you need to shout over us to talk to your friend, maybe you should go outside. I don't want you to hurt your voice." One slightly slower song is introduced as the "make out interlude" and we also find out that the 2003 re-make of Freaky Friday was the first time that Alex ever saw a girl in a rock band.

With the live music finished, there is still time for everyone to get their faces glittered and dance to Gina G.

Diet Cig and Spook School were at Rough Trade Nottingham on Friday 13 October 2017. 

Fanclub put on monthly nights at Rough Trade and events at other venues in the city.