CONCERTREVIEW : SHE KEEPS BEES (GENT, VIDEO 15/02/2010)

I must confess that I’m the kind of guy who likes hypes simply because I see it as one of the vivid things to keep the scene alive. Right or wrong, it’s up to us to decide if they’re wrong or right after all.
She Keeps Bees are such a band. Not that they’re overhyped but I read a review by one of the journos that matters (who else can it be than Everett True?) and I liked what he said about them. So freezing or no freezing, this was a gig I wanted to see.
Arriving at the Video-venue I noticed that it’d be a nightmare to obtain a place, and even to see a glimpse of them…but in front of me were only the godlike little people.
She keeps Bees are a duo from New York, man and woman, and they’ve been compared a million times to White Stripes, PJ Harvey or Florence & The Machine that at the beginning of the gig, Jessica Larrabee starts making jokes about it. It soon turned out that the whole gig would end up being a joke for her though…
It might be a painful truth but the soul-rock from this duo is PJ Harvey-ish, and if not then it’s Patti Smith and that’s the same, not?
Another painful thing, perhaps more painful, is that they don’t own the talents from above bands and that’s mainly due to the fact that the band simply aren’t serious enough.
During a set from 50 mins you must hear the constant nonsense from Jessica till you start thinking : when will you start a decent song?
You don’t run away from it, I stayed till the last minute, but if someone owns a voice like Jessica it’s a shame you waste it to minor songs and making your set a circus-act till no one takes you seriously.
Expected much more from that, so a disappointment as they say….