Du Blonde
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds

BETH Jeans Houghton — aka Du Blonde — is giving every impression of being a disorganised performer.

The Newcastle musician shrugs off her fake fur coat after one song because of the heat. She holds up the set list written by touring bassist Neil to illustrate that it’s illegible. And she turns her back to the audience to wipe her nose on her scruffy black Coors T-shirt, “not because I’ve taken cocaine but because I’ve got allergies,” she insists of her sniffle.

It’s a shambolic quality that’s at odds with her work ethic. In addition to releasing three albums since 2012, initially under her own name but latterly as Du Blonde, she’s directed and animated music videos for numerous artists and has published a comic series that deals with her anxiety.

Such discipline is evident as soon as she stops chatting and starts to perform. Backed by a musically tight trio completed by drummer Craig, she variously references grunge, glam and the guitar solos of classic US rock — and reveals that her love of Rush almost jinxed her love life.

That unlikely combination of styles proves most effective at its extremes — the grizzled alt-blues of Black Flag, the brooding loneliness of Coffee Machine and After The Show and the solo rendition of Four In The Morning hark back to the melodiousness of her early freak-folk recordings.

The songs are unified by an emotional honesty that creates a connection with much of the audience yet it’s a relationship tested by too many songs that lose their way, creating an inconsistency that doesn’t do full credit to Houghton’s undoubted talent.