Gig review: Dea Matrona at The Wardrobe, Leeds

What a lovely surprise! Having only heard a few tracks by young Irish band Dea Matrona before their gig at the Wardrobe on Saturday night, I had no idea what to expect live.

However, the band, whose name translates as ‘Divine Mother Goddess’ certainly lived up to the Divine part, transfixing the audience with their Fleetwood Mac, T.Rex-y vibes with hints of The Runaways thrown in.

From the opening bars of My Sharona by the Knack, the four-piece led by Mollie McGinn and Orlaith Forsythe, launch into a mix of original songs and well-chosen covers.

The girls have beautiful, strong voices and Stamp On It and Get My Mind Off see them sharing vocals and the latter’s great harmonies, driving bass and bluesy guitar have the packed crowd singing along.

Both are from their album For Your Sins which had been launched the previous day and they had come to The Wardrobe from a record store gig earlier in the day.

Rocky, bluesy Did Nobody Ever Love You – their ‘Girl Power’ song – was followed by a fabulous cover of Prince’s Kiss, which had everyone dancing and then clapping to The Runaways-tinged Wilderness.

Mollie and Orlaith swapped guitar and bass throughout the night, a throwback to their teenage busking days when the bass was too heavy for them and did so to fine effect on So Damn Dangerous and then delighted everyone with a loud and heavy version of Fleetwood Mac’s Oh Well.

Black Rain was slower and led into a request for “lighters, phones and vapes” to be held up for Glory Glory (I am Free), played just by Orlaith and Mollie on acoustic and electric guitar.

The rest of the band then returned for a song from their recent visit to Texas. The girls bantered with the crowd throughout the night and caused great hilarity with their blue cowboy hats worn during the country rock of Sell Your Soul.

We were into the final lap now, with the gentler sexy disco beat of I Want You Baby. Then, for me, the highlight of the night, a rocky cover of Murder on the Dancefloor which Sophie Ellis-Bextor would surely have approved of! The whole band was having a ball!

Finishing the main set with Red Button, the band left the stage to rapturous applause before returning with a cry of “Let’s see some hands!” for a rousing encore of Make You My Star. Most of the very happy audience then queued up at the merchandise stand where Orlaith and Mollie very happily signed their albums and CDs and chatted long after the show was over.

Dea Matrona are going places – catch them if you can!