The Ting Tings at The Metro

The Ting Tings rolled into town for Big Day Out last week. I took in their sideshow (photos courtesy of the sexy, bearded Daniel Boud)THE TING TINGS
DASH & WILL
The Metro, Sydney
20/01/09

While their names suggest they are a couple of lads, Melbourne’s Dash & Will are actually two diminutive females. Looking like models for American Apparel, Dash (Charlie Thorpe) and Will’s (Josie De Sousa-Reay) perky guitar-pop was undeniably catchy and, just when their continually shared vocals and overt poppiness threatened to grow tiresome, their newest songs showed a rockier, more interesting side to their sound. Ultimately it was hard not to be won over by the fact that, even though their reputation is growing fast, they still seemed insanely excited to be on stage at all, and bounced around with the exuberance of a couple of kids dancing to their favourite tunes in their bedroom.

The Ting Tings announced their arrival to a sold-out Metro by drummer Jules De Martino playing drums and guitar at the same time before vocalist/guitarist Katie White bounded out from the shadows and launched straight into We Walk. Next, slightly surprisingly, came mega-hit Great DJ. It may have been a brave move to play their breakthrough single so early, but it certainly created a party atmosphere.White’s guitar skills were primitive to say the least, but it mattered not because the duo’s sound was carried by the impressive De Martino, who knows his way around a drum kit. White was certainly an arresting frontwoman though, pacing the stage, hacking the hell out of her guitar and leading the crowd through a chorus of “ker-chings” on Fruit Machine. The lame Traffic Light disappointingly brought the tempo down before the awesome funky pop of Shut Up And Let Me Go moved things in the right direction again, with its duel drumming and frenzied cowbell bashing.

If there were an award for shittest intro to an encore ever, it would have been won by De Martino’s inexplicable two minutes of DJing in which he badly mixed Run DMC with the theme-tune to Ghostbusters, so it was a relief when White returned and De Martino strapped on a bass guitar for Impacilla Carpisung. Predictably but pleasingly, the duo ended with the enticing nonsense of the singalong That’s Not My Name, which sent the crowd nuts and proved that, while The Ting Tings may be throwaway and hit-and-miss, on the occasions they get it right, their brand of nursery-rhyme indie-pop is strangely irresistible.