Golden Girl: Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves of Destiny

Slaughtered Lamb
23 September 2009

There were two other acts playing, and there was also the Hooves of Destiny, but there was no doubting the real centre of attention at a busy Electro Acoustic Club.

For the record, act 1, Emit Bloch, not entirely predictably a Jewish Cowboy from Utah who said he has 178 cousins, seems to be more a part of Devendra Banhart's away-with-the-fairies freak-folk extended family than he is a kosher rancher. Act 2 was a band that even the promoter's website doesn't name (and which I forgot to note from the set times poster) who played downbeat but pretty enough straight folk that was fine but didn't command attention.

Then came Beth, who by her own exuberant standards didn't let her personality blaze from the beginning - despite the two-foot tall hedge/backwards wig, atop a frock coat with lashings of gold braid and a layered mini dress. Funny thing was that she had been sporting pink hot-pants and a bra top an hour before playing; fool that I am, I had taken that to be the stage outfit. Nay, nay and thrice not.

After a low-key start to the set, Beth warmed to her task and gradually added her trademark banter, with practised stories of the songs' genesis and improvised deviations for everything else. It was good to see that the sometimes amusing but also rather self-indulgent and amateurish attitude to live shows, which has previously led to tunes being endlessly restarted or even abandoned altogether, is now a disappearing trait.

As mentioned previously, not all the songs are of equal merit, and although they are always fun to watch, the too-frequent oompah rhythm is in danger of mistaking 'jolly' for 'worth hearing'; however some songs are wonderful so let us not dwell on the quibbles. Most intriguing is the way Beth sings, suddenly switching from her hyper-animated chatter to a static almost trance-like state when The Voice flows, to wonderful effect, as on Golden, reluctantly played but I can't think why, it is fantastic. The muted trumpet worked a treat.

So: lots of the BJH back- and current catalogue and a couple of covers, all neatly rendered by the well-practised Hooves of Destiny; Nightswimmer, Veins and Golden were the stand-outs. Team Beth are ready to move up the ladder.