The ex-Ash guitarist proved she’s a dab hand on her own two feet…

Date: September 15, 2009

Venue: Bodega Social

Despite regularly topping Best Female guitarist polls and being likened to The Breeders and Throwing Muses axe-wielding femme fatale Tanya Donnelly, Charlotte Hatherley is still best known as ‘that bird from Ash’.

And while it’s true that she was once the fret-throttler in said band she is now on her third solo album, so it’s high time that the mainstream awoke to her own artillery of cherry-sweet pop, brooding pop-noir and, on what can be gathered from the songs plucked from her forthcoming third album, piercing punk-pop.

The set exhibits a bias towards the new punkier material. In fact, it’s only in the encore in which we hear her more recognisable earlier tracks I Want You To Know, Behave, Kim Wilde and Summer, which have all benefited from a meatier thump these days.

From the new batch Full Circle sounds like The Slits and The Donnas having a debauched pillow fight, while New World’s volatile punk contains a venomous bite despite it being fraught with bass problems. Elsewhere her new single White comes on like a dirtier, scuzzier Ting Tings.

Through her mop of unruly claret-tinged hair there’s a resemblance to a young Chrissie Hynde, and her bullish vocals and knack for a tune help to further that claim