24/11/2014 | The Pretty Reckless – Birmingham Institute

It’s fair to say that the this year has been pretty successful for The Pretty Reckless. They have become the first female fronted band to reach number one in the US rock charts with their first two releases from their latest album Going To Hell, and have enjoyed sold out shows all over the world.

Taking to the stage tonight behind a mysterious thin black curtain; all that the audience see and hear at the start of the performance are silhouettes of the band members and suggestive sexual moans from the PA. With a huge cheer from the audience, the curtain suddenly drops revealing the band as they promptly launch into Follow Me Down; an excellent opener.

Throughout their set, a large percentage of the focus is on front woman Taylor Momsen as she moodily and seductively draws the audience in with her stage presence, but it would be impossible to not notice the strength in her band mates too; Mark Damon on bass, Ben Phillips on Guitar and drummer Jamie Perkins, as they give one of the tightest performances that I have seen recently.

The set list for the night largely comprised of tracks from Going To Hell, along with a few well received fan favourites such as Miss Nothing and Since You’re Gone. The audience seemed to sing along word for word for many songs including Why’d You Bring A Shotgun to the Party and perhaps their most famous track, Make Me Wanna Die.

After Make Me Wanna Die, Taylor told the audience “If you know the next one scream!” and launched into Heaven Knows, however; disaster struck part the way through the song as the PA blew and the band had to leave the stage for a few minutes as the super sound crew fixed the problem. After much audience stomping and clapping the band returned to the stage like true professionals and finished their performance of the song on a high.

Closing their set on Going To Hell they returned to the stage for encore Fucked Up World and allowed talented drummer Jamie Perkins to really shine with a good five to ten minute drum solo mid-song. Although their overall set was a little short, it was very much a case of quality over quantity as they left the stage to rapturous applause which made it clear that it had been a superb night all around.