The Verse’s Luke Edmeades reviews She Drew the Gun’s politically-charged show at the Prince Albert on 18/10/2016…
It is unique to find distinctive, socially pertinent song writing which you can actually find meaning in. Louisa Roach plainly believes what she writes, and relays this to audiences in a memorable, powerful and mesmeric way. The mesmerism is created through storytelling, as allegory is more powerful than anger, and allows us to better understand the urgency in their music.
My preview drew a comparison to, or from, Bob Dylan, which became more relevant when Louisa filled the gaps between songs with spoken word. A long, falling, rhythmic stream, which did not feel bitter, or unrealistic, but also the similarity works in that bob Dylan has beautiful songs that are not political. In Be Mine we are made to feel like we are falling through love, with a psychedelic melody, which confirms how distorted and hallucinatory love can be; when you fall, often there is no way back, giving meaning to the reference to Lewis Carroll’s rabbit hole.
Since You Were Not Mine was a song that really showed the destructive nature of lost love, of how it destroys beauty, order and structure, and numbs you to feeling, with the lyrics “the sun refused to shine / all the songs were out of time”.
Louisa Roach sings with despondency, but also passion and beauty. Her voice and the bass lines carry the songs along, and make you feel comfortable and familiar, not only in the tone, but in what is being said: that everyone experiences hardship, loss and bitterness. Poem is the song with, as Roach said herself, “a lot of words”, and was what caught the audience’s attention, but I think this only enhanced the other songs, making the sentiment more ‘real’.
She Drew The Gun have revived music that has clear purpose, their thought provoking and flawlessly delivered political statements amalgamated with a sound that is unclear and hazy – reflective of the notion that we as a society are never privy to seeing or experiencing things clearly.
