ATLANTA, GA – On a chilly Tuesday night at The Loft in Atlanta, Those Darlins roared into town and proceeded to heat up the place before a crowd that was either extremely stoned or completely taken by surprise. These sweet little darlins are cussin’ big time! They’re screamin’ and shreddin’ guitars up there!
After opening with “Snaggle Tooth Mama”, Jessi Darlin told the crowd of mostly twenty-somethings waiting to see the headlining act, that they’d just come from Asheville the night before. “Atlanta is grittier. And we heard y’all got more balls! And pussies!”
The Darlins — Nikki, Jessi, and Kelley — stomped, thrashed, snarled and slinked around the stage for a tight 45-minute set. What the audience lacked in energy, the Darlins covered ten-fold. After “DUI or Die”, they even solicited rides home from some “sober-lookin’ guys” in the front row.
With Nikki on baritone ukelele, and Jessi and Kelley trading guitar and bass (literally trading instruments back and forth — the bass looked ancient) they romped through fan favorites “Wild One”, “The Whole Damn Thing”, and “Red Light Love.” The energy seemed to increase when Kelley took over lead guitars on the revved-up Carter Family covers of “Who’s That Knocking at My Window?” and “Cannonball Blues.” With all the instrument speed-swapping between songs, Kelley’s guitar got noticeably out of tune on “Hung Up On Me” — a minor mishap they simply laughed off.
A (faux?) mink stole-covered “Sheriff” Linwood Regensburg rocked the drumkit hard in near obscurity behind the triptych of Darlins. They finished up with the playfully nasty “Funstix Party” that truly brought out the band’s neo-punk leanings, reminiscent of Ramones, Dead Milkmen and Minutemen.
On the whole, Those Darlins proved they have more balls than the Atlanta crowd, at least on this night. So, go buy their record so they can afford to get an extra bass.
