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Delilah Bon: Deaf Institute, Manchester – live review

Delilah Bon Deaf Institute, Manchester September 30th 2022 Delilah Bon produced a set of fine tuned freak pop, hip hop, grimy grunge-based highlights from their short career so far. Mike Bennett reports back, with photos by Nettlespie Photography. Maybe, the tides are finally starting to turn. Maybe its time for an artist of a dozen […]

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Delilah Bon: Deaf Institute, Manchester – live reviewDelilah Bon
Deaf Institute, Manchester
September 30th 2022

Delilah Bon produced a set of fine tuned freak pop, hip hop, grimy grunge-based highlights from their short career so far. Mike Bennett reports back, with photos by Nettlespie Photography.

Maybe, the tides are finally starting to turn. Maybe its time for an artist of a dozen amalgamated styles and cultures to change what the mainstream think, especially with the associated accidental /non-accidental remnants of the mainstream actually involved. In this musical and image collage, there are hints, big and small. Harley Quinn is clearly a role model, but I spotted bass lines from old Napalm Death and Black Sabbath records, slogans influenced by Woody Guthrie, Crass or the Situationist manifesto, all three are just as likely it seems. There was hip hop (an Eminem track is covered towards the end, with lyrics changed), punk, dancefloor, metal(the pre-show tape sounded like late 1980s thrash but could have been a side project of the band) and all points in between. One of the tracks made its way through grime, hip hop and the aforementioned Napalm Death bass line. In fact the bass is the musical star here, played by second star in waiting Ruena, a shadow twin to the obvious shining brilliance of the singer Lauren.

Speaking of the singer, is Delilah Bon a collective name or the name of the singer, like the Alice Cooper Band of the early 1970s, where it was often assumed that the singer was called Alice, to the point that it became a self-fulfilling prophecy? It is perhaps less important here as both Ruena and DJ GOLDENAXE are just as integral to the huge sparks of chemistry coming from the stage as Lauren herself, not hired hands but co-conspirators. Lauren is front and centre, relaxed and controlled before letting go of the occasional scream that unseated the bats from the rafters in this fabulous top-floor venue and made the room reciprocate with love returned.

Delilah Bon: Deaf Institute, Manchester – live reviewThough you would not know it at the time in the English music press, apart from the odd condescending interview, in the 1990s Riot Grrrl changed the way a lot of people thought about music. Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, and later Sleater-Kinney were just as noted for involvement in feminist and left-wing causes as the music they created. Like punk, pop and politics were seen as one branch, a co-existing idea. One of the ideas that came from this scene was Girls to the Front, shouted from the stage by Bikini Kills Kathleen Hanna, encouraging the men and boys to make room at the stage. A similar thing is happening with Delilah Bon. The fierce, witty, brilliant lyrics, inclusive feminine rage, a demand to be heard, a call to arms for the next generation, is so incredible to witness, that it’s a tangible emotional thing.

Delilah BonIn a packed room that was at least 90% female, singing along at the top of their lungs to Devil, Bad Attitude, Where My Girls At, Chiquitita, and the sublime War on Women, there was something different from other gigs with mosh pits, even a moshpit as polite as this one. And its hope I think, joy at being here and witnessing this. There are already a handful of mini Delilah’s around, surely as pure a test of future greatness as any other test worth taking.

Then they play Dead Men Don’t Rape, a warning and a manifesto in one four-minute burst of pure undiluted anger, I run the risk of embarrassing myself if I attempt to articulate my feelings here so, the best song tonight and one of the best singles I have heard for years, playlisting it might be problematic in these in-between days, but this will be someone’s Oh Bondage Up Yours, somebody else’s Teenage Kicks, somebody’s cry in the dark that saves them.

~

Deliah Bon can be found at her website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

All words by MK Bennett, you can find his author’s archive here plus his Twitter and Instagram

Photography by Nettlespie Photography. You can follow Gosia on Instagram.

Source: louderthanwar.com

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