Tyneside fuzz rockers PIT PONY make their first Scottish appearance at Edinburgh’s Sneaky Pete’s tonight, the band’s vocalist Jackie Purver looking pretty surprised as she gazes out into the crowd, telling us she’d expected Nadine (Shah, her bestie and merch-stand host for the evening) and maybe five others to turn up.
But her modesty soon dissipates as the set gets underway, shimmering with moody, abrasive cuts, pulling on influences such as punk, psych and Krautrock, Jackie’s vocal deliciously articulating darkness and light, often reminiscent of The Duke Spirit’s Liela Moss, with a touch of Debbie Harry and splash of Geordie twang thrown in for good measure. With support slots for Idles and The Wedding Present under their belts, Pit Pony are continuing to make an impact with airplay on 6 Music, Radio 1 and Radio X, and it’s no surprise to us that they’ve sold out Sneaky’s tonight.
Meandering psychedelia swirls under the punchy angst of opening number Well Well, from new album Dead Stars, Jackie wagging a finger at the crowd as an old soul materialises through her no-nonsense vocal which finds her pondering the fragility of life. Next up, guitarists Andrew Jones and Garth Purver unleash their explosive, rotating riffs on Black Tar, the song “an outlet for the pent up anxiety of isolation” according to Jackie, when we spoke to the band back in 2022 before the release of their debut World To Me, written during the lockdowns of the pandemic. The unhinged drills of 2024’s Fuzzy kick up a storm before the pace finally drops with the uplifting intones of This Love Of Mine, while the band shows another side again on the introspective Cut Open, revealing a new vulnerability as they channel a mesmerising slice of doo-wop.
Jackie’s got her banter planned nicely throughout the set, utilising re-tuning breaks to tell it like it is, at one point admitting that the whole of the north east of England would happily be adopted by Scotland. Aw, that’s nice but I’m not sure the Durham bloke down the front shares this sentiment!
Back on with the music and hypnotic waves of caustic discord swell under Jackie’s growing outrage on No Shame, a scathing commentary on the treatment of immigrants, while the blistering mix of Andrew Potter’s bass and Joey Morley’s drums lead us into the searing chimes of Vacancy, Jackie’s intones both nonchalant and narcotic as she turns her attention to social media. Dead Stars opener At Dawn sees the two Andrews swap roles as a bass-driven, cinematic scuzz unfolds before our ears, before returning to their original instruments as they close the set with Krautrock-inspired Supermarket, a track which was originally nine minutes long, thanks to Andrew Jones’ love of the genre. Wallowing in that feeling you get when you spot someone again after a break up, Jackie steps off the crammed stage to allow the guys to geek out in their full glory, giving it their everything and wearing their sweat with pride as the crowd shows their appreciation one last time. Superb stuff, and with a performance like that Pit Pony will surely be selling out much bigger venues in the near future…catch them if you can!
Dead Stars is out now on Clue Records.
Words: Shirley Mack @shirleymack.bsky.social
Pictures: Calum Mackintosh @ayecandyphotography