The Donnas
University of London
Rating ***
If the Ramones were known as "da bruddas", meet da sistas: four California post-riot grrrls who share an aesthetic best described as ramshackle.
After seven years together, the Donnas' art is still rudimentary. They bang out bubblegum punk that couldn't be more reductive if Joey Ramone himself were hovering over their shoulders with his Gabba Gabba Hey! sign.
Like those Japanese girl groups who make whole albums about chocolate, Donnas A, C, F and R are superficial in a way that shouldn't be possible in an age where even the Spice Girls are considered ironic. What you see is what you get, and no messing - a show divided into a dozen three-minute gasps of adrenaline, with guitarist Donna R the main attraction.
She is fast and ferocious, hauling the other three through the show. The Donnas' special subject is boys, as in the new single 40 Boys in 40 Nights, but they turn out to be all mouth. Where Motley Crue would be ravishing groupies in the dressing room, the Donnas' encounters climax in a snog at most. And often a boy would be lucky to get a peck on the cheek, to go by singer Donna A's guileless cheerleader smile as she pogos through the primitive chant Get Ridda That Girl. The current album is called the Donnas Turn 21, but where the opposite sex is concerned they are eternally 14, tossing their Timotei-fresh hair in the hope of attracting a game (but not too game) bit of trouser in the front row.
"This one's for the guys in the house - it's called You've Got a Crush on Me," giggles Donna A (real name Brett Anderson, but a million tubes of Colgate away from the Suede frontman). And the one after that is for the girls in the house, and they carry on till they run out of dedications. The mere act of women forming a band supposedly implies empowerment, but these Donnas lack utterly the savage self- awareness of Courtney Love's Hole, or even All Saints' aloof sexiness. Hole are tigresses; The Donnas are Hello Kitty.
The Donnas play the Hop & Grape, Manchester (0161-275 2930), tonight, then tour.
