Camden Barfly
09.11.06
If you’re craving a bit of sleazy glamour in your life, you could do worse than go and check out the Soho Dolls – a multi-national quartet that have attracted a small but loyal following in our fair capital. Essentially an electro-pop band with a darkly erotic edge, they’ve managed to sell out the Barfly tonight with only a couple of singles under their belt.
Like their namesake, this lot are all about forbidden delights just waiting to be uncovered; with singer Maya von Doll dressed not unlike the subject of future single ‘Stripper’ in eyeliner, high heels and fishnets. Tonight she’s taken over her ill keyboard player’s duties, and watching her seductive onstage presence is like having all your seedier desires paraded in front of you. Cynics may sneer at their pornographic glam-trash image, but the Soho Dolls can certainly walk it like they talk it; whipping Barfly into a dancing frenzy with the robotic beats and pulsing grooves of songs like ‘No Regrets’ and live favourite ‘Prince Harry’. His royal highness-to-be should be flattered.
With tunes and star quality of this calibre, you get the feeling that venues like the Barfly will soon be very much beneath them. Ultimately, the Soho Dolls are the musical equivalent of a beautifully manicured hand stroking itself up the quivering thighs of banality, and that’s definitely a good thing.