It’s been about five years since Gossip started to spread like wildfire out of Olympia, WA. People really started to notice when Movement appeared on KRS in 2003; blasting scruffy riffs, hammering drums and a singer with a voice that could make you cry or organize a riot with just the right word, the album made the biggest of big indie rawk splashes. Not at home though—Gossip erupted and began their insurrection abroad.
Five years later and the band is a global concern; singer Beth Ditto has appeared nude on the cover of NME, guitarist Nathan Howdeshel is now known full-time by his nom de rock Brace Paine and fans by the thousands flock to the band’s banner to soak up both their music and politics. But all of that is just rhetoric—the same sort of praise that critics have been throwing at the band since the turn of the century—the band is still a dangerous commodity in the still-Republican United States and hasn’t had the chance to break into the North American popular consciousness yet.
So when the door’s shut, you find a window, and that’s precisely what Gossip has done: rather than tackle the exterior media, they’re going to get into home stereos and DVD players.
As a promotional tool, Live In Liverpool is the ideal document. Presenting a set list that relies largely on the band’s dance-punk turn with Standing In The Way Of Control, the CD and DVD let the uninitiated see and hear what they’re missing. The packed house at Carling Academy shudders ecstatically with every beat, swings with every lick on Howdeshel’s guitar and bass and swoons every time Beth Ditto overloads her vocal to the point that she attains an orgiastic state of bliss like a post-grunge Janis Joplin. Happily though, Gossip does pull a little from the scuzzy, dirty-shirt-alt-blues-punk stuff of their debut, That’s Not What I Heard (represented by “Swing Low”) and balls-out sophomore effort (“Don’t Make Waves," “Yesterday’s News” and “Fire/Sign”) for the benefit of older fans as well. The band plays it hard and plays it loud through songs including “Eyes Open," “Jealous Girls," “Don’t Make Waves” and a cover of George Michael’s “Careless Whisper.” The trio really gives audiences their money’s worth; if this set doesn’t whet your appetite to see the band live with your own two eyes, nothing will.
The band is cleaner than it used to be—with a greater popularity has come a slightly more apparent sense of propriety as Beth Ditto remains clothed for the whole performance and the number of expletives is minimal—and that too could be a play to invade the homes of the uninitiated and/or skittish, or even for the footage to be broadcast on network TV with minimal resistance. The audio is scrubbed up and well-produced too; as a business card, Live In Liverpool is an excellent way to build new audiences because it presents the band in its finest form; dominating both the crowd at the show as well as well as hypnotizing those at home.
Download "Yr Mangled Heart" from Live in Liverpool – [mp3]
For more information visit www.thegossipmusic.com or myspace.com/gossipband
