Du Blonde is baring her checkerboard teeth as she snarls not-so-niceties into the Yellow Arch mic. She’s flanked on both sides by a squadron of musicians; one thrashing bass player, two dueling guitarists, and one backing vocalist doubling up as a hype woman. Behind, a drummer is pounding away at his kit with all the fury of a bloke who has been locked out of his flat on a freezing cold Sheffield night. And there has potentially never been a greater concentration of blonde hair assembled on one stage before.
Welcome to the world of Du Blonde; the on-stage moniker/character of Newcastle native Beth Jeans Houghton. She sings euphoric, loud, and lyrically-sharp garage rock anthems that take just as much from The Ramones as they do Joni Mitchell. And judging by her catalogue’s average runtime, punk is an obvious influence too. Plenty clock in at under three minutes, and her last album (2021’s Homecoming) was a bright and breezy 25 minutes. Tonight, she blasts through the best part of 16 songs in about an hour. Most of those are taken from her latest release, 2024’s excellently titled Sniff More Gritty. It’s the fourth album of Du Blonde’s career – though she has released plenty more under her real name.
That’s important to note, because there is a clear distinction between Du Blonde – the snarling, sassy rock star – and Beth – the smiling, self-deprecating Geordie. Du Blonde is an act; a character that she comes in and out of when necessary. That’s as true for her personally as it is for her music. Du Blonde slips into classic American rock with ease on ‘Dollar Coffee,’ tries punk on for size in ‘I’m Glad That We Broke Up’ and even breaks up the show with two lilting, acoustic ballads midway through. The show is expertly paced, and Beth seems totally at ease in the skin of Du Blonde.
That’s important to note, because there is a clear distinction between Du Blonde – the snarling, sassy rock star – and Beth – the smiling, self-deprecating Geordie.
As Du Blonde, she plays a kind of swaggering North American rock star with an IDGAF attitude to life. But her lyrics often point to something deeper, and at times Du Blonde feels like a vessel that Beth can use to express her innermost thoughts. They flit between uneasy confessions (‘Feeling tired of being a fuck-up / Feeling tired of wasting all my time on the small things while they pass me by’) to laugh-out-loud lines (‘Didn’t think I’d be thirty, broke and happy / Singing for the choir like Ducky Daffy’) – often in the same song.
That dry sense of humour is the thread that seems to unite these two duelling personas, and when Du Blonde’s music really seems to connect with the Yellow Arch crowd. In ‘Perfect,’ the type of song that has you scratching your head why Du Blonde has never really exploded into the mainstream before, she sings about striving to be ‘a better type of me’ – but knows she’s never quite getting there (‘I’m so close to being perfect / There’s always room to grow / Give me time and I promise I can earn it’). It’s pretty close to perfect, and a set highlight. As she closes with the euphoric ‘TV Star,’ the snarl and swagger of Du Blonde is gradually replaced by the serene and self-satisfied Beth. The music stops, the lights go out, and Du Blonde is simply Beth again. But for an hour tonight, we too got a glimpse into the world of Du Blonde: not perfect, never boring, always thrilling.
