She Wants Revenge have never played in Copenhagen before. The newly-ish reformed duo have managed to pull a small but dedicated crowd to Loppen, despite having only released two singles in the last seven years. But everyone dances like they’ve been dancing to these songs with abandon for the last decade plus, waiting for the moment when it was the band themselves playing the songs instead of a DJ.
For a band that established themselves as a duo with a drum machine, She Wants Revenge works very well as a fully-fleshed out rock band. Justin Warfield is a compelling frontman: He has a flare for the dramatic, a voice whose character makes up for a lack of range, and the commitment of a performer who is used to adapting to any room.
They are also a band that, like so many other Joy Division copycats of the early ‘00s, got better as they moved away from the pastiche. Their live drummer, Jason Payne, is one of those machine-like drummers that, when given the opportunity to cut loose, is really extraordinary to watch. And after so many years of people going crazy for bassists who can play like Peter Hook, more due should be given to drummers who can play like Stephen Morris.
It’s a delight to add any band to the growing masses resisting phoney encores. Warfield makes it clear that when they walk off the stage, they’re done. Their final song, “Tear You Apart,” is another song that benefits from their live arrangement, the added textures of a second guitar and the furious live drumming make the song so much less sterile than the album version. And it’s their their biggest hit; what could they follow it with? But there was an appeal to bring them back, and that the audience bring a friend, so there may be more than those two singles somewhere on the horizon.
