Daisy Dares You and The Plasticines – London Borderline
The Plasticines
February 8th 2009
Daisy Dares You walked on to the stage, more or less unnoticed. All of a sudden she launched into the first track, her long blonde hair flailing around as she shook her head manically.
The 16 year old doesn’t look particularly like a rock chick; indeed her debut single ‘Number One Enemy’ features Chipmunk – hardly known for his rock tendencies – but she was soon brandishing a guitar and rocking out like the best of them. She looked slightly out of place amongst her band mates (who are all quite a bit older than her) but held her own throughout the show, struggling only to fully engage the audience, who were an older than average crowd lacking the teenybopper energy you’d expect at a gig like this.
Daisy reminded me of the UK’s answer to Ashley Simpson, or perhaps our very own Pixie Lott gone wrong. Toward the end of the set, she broke into a punk-pop version of the Oliver! song ‘Who Will Buy?’ I couldn’t decide if it was sheer genius or completely awful, particularly as the middle section turned into a head banging competition between her and her guitarist. Perhaps if I were 10 years younger, I might have appreciated her style a bit more, but, whilst I can’t fault her enthusiasm and energy on stage, felt she had a lot to learn about actual stage presence.
Daisy Dares You could have learnt a thing or two from the evening’s headliners The Plastiscines. The French foursome oozed Parisian style and attitude, and in contrast to their support, were at ease talking to the crowd. After a quick ‘une, deux, trois, quatre!’ they launched into their first few songs, before guitarist Marine Neuilly playfully attacked the audience. “Wake up London! This isn’t a jazz concert – shake your fucking booty” she barked, with a slight smirk.
A few tracks on, the crowd were no more lively, so halfway through an excellent cover of Nancy Sinatra’s ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’, leading lady Katty Besnard announced that she wasn’t carrying on until everyone in the room was clapping along with her. “I can see everyone”, she cried, “You – I know you’re holding your drink, but come ON!”
These tactics seemed to work, as the audience noticeably relaxed and started moving to the music. There was more interaction to come, as Gossip Girl-featured track ‘Bitch’ was played and Besnard leant forward into the crowd encouraging people to chant “B/I/T/C/H” into the microphone. After the finale – a punked up version of ’70s song ‘You’re No Good’ – they were gone, disappearing from the stage as quickly as they had appeared.
The Plastiscines are generating a lot of hype for themselves amongst industry bods and fans alike, and it’s no real surprise to see why. They’re young, attractive, stylish (Katty wore a figure-hugging black bum-skimming dress) and have that French ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude that we just can’t pull off. Their raunchy stage antics no doubt help; at one point Besnard and Neuilly snaked their way down to the floor facing each other and both leant in to sing into the lead mic together. From where I was standing it looked like something else – I wasn’t surprised to find that the majority of the audience were male. This, together with the fact that they can actually play their instruments well, comes across as a breath of fresh air in our manufactured-pop filled world of music. I think that perhaps, if The Plastiscines rather than Daisy dared me, I might find myself in rather a lot of trouble.
