The Kut: Princess Maha – pic by Ian Bourn for Scene Sussex
Last night, at last, had a chance to catch up with The Kut, 29/07. A fusion of grunge, power, pop, alt rock and punk all mixed with some great tunes fusing to give a top performance and a generous helping of chaos, fun and laughter.
The Kut
Infused with the fuzz of 90’s grunge and alt.rock, The Kut is the alter-ego of multi-instrumentalist, Princess Maha. Live, they’re a trio. Think Deftones, L7, Nirvana, Hole, Lunachicks, Incubus and Placebo. On record, they roar. Currently active on the UK and European rock scene, festival performances have included Download, Camden Rocks Festival, Rebellion Festival, Glastonbudget, Nice N Sleazy and Strummercamp among others, while tours have spanned the UK, Italy, Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The Band – meet them!
Princess Maha: Guitar / Vocals
Diana Bartmann: Drums
Stella Vie: Bass / Vocals
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- The Kut: Princess Maha
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- The Kut: Diana
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- The Kut: Stella
Make no mistake Princess Maha controls and indeed owns that stage. Her vocal range is astonishing with a range from down to earth husky, to a gnarly in your face growl and then sometimes it’s just warming and soft. Fabulous. She shared her performance with a beer, a water and her glowing blue e-cig! . She doesn’t keep still for a second, the hair flowing and all the while she fires out some wonderful guitar playing with some seriously infectious riffs and hooks. Stella took to the stage with her beautiful Fender bass. She and Princess Maha bounce off each other for the entire set, they rock together with jumps, hair everywhere and provides some serious vocal work, all the while pumping out that bass, working in perfect unison with Diana. The lady at the back, Diana, provided a masterstroke performance with a huge variety of patterns and fills. A great rock drummer who was a joy to watch as she very much took part in the performance.
The Set
The Kut proceeded to rock out with the the first song of the night Mario, this was quickly followed with Alekhine’s Gun. Two songs in and The Kut had the crowd right where they wanted them – down the front and dancing!
The Kut: Princess Maha – leading the crowd
If Looks Could Kill was up and then we were treated to DMA. Two damn fine slices of rock and roll! The guys seemed to be having a blast up there, no doubt fueled by the incredible success of their album Valley Of Thorns. The set was comprised of some older material and newer tracks from that album. I Want You Maniac was next, instantly recognised by the crowd with a cheer as the band took it up another notch.
The Kut: Stella – pumpin it out on her bass guitar
Don Juan, I am vain, and I Don’t Need Therapy came at us next – a great song for the crowd to bounce along to down at the front of the stage at The Green Door Store. Stella at one point jumped out of her skin as the smoke machine above her head sputtered into life and the band collapsed with laughter at her reaction! Diana on the kit was mostly hidden from us in the dark recess of the stage, and, as the dreaded smoke filled the stage we lost sight of her altogether at times! Every so often we got some lighting and we could see her doing her thing. She was working damn hard up there providing the monster sound of The Kut percussion. One could not fail to be impressed with the sounds she was putting out.
The Kut: Diana – rockin’ it out
Mind Games and Runaways were next on the set. This was proving to be a rousing and a storming night of live music from The Kut. They dropped back into Brighton on this, the third night of their latest UK tour.Next – the mighty Bad Man. Princess Maha invited everyone to get in closer, and an invite for the crowd to join them on stage! People didn’t need to be asked twice as the stage invasion got underway. Bad Man is a mighty tune, it shows off fully the song writing abilities and the musicianship on display. They loved and the crowd loved it!
Then it arrived, the last song of the night, the all out power rocker Hollywood Rock n Roll – the latest release with a video to go with the tour. The Kut had been joined with an additional guitarist for the last couple of tracks, Jayke Reverand Turl – The Smokin Prophets. The three piece had become a four piece as they tore up the place with this last track of the night. This really was a show stopper to end the gig. This took me back, and reminded me of when I saw The Runaways live – the song and the energy with the elements of the band all coming together. A blistering song – with a fab chant of “Hollywood Rock and Roll” with the band hitting it tight, fast – and err loud!
Jayke Reverand Turl – pic by Ian Bourn for Scene Sussex
And Finally
It was great to see them – at last, after I just missed them the last time they played in Brighton. I had been in touch with Princess Maha since that missed gig, and finally got a chance to meet her and the The Kut before and after the show. They really are a delightful bunch and they are looking forward to the rest of the massive UK tour. They were thrilled to the response of their album, and it is due out hopefully out on vinyl in October this year – yes please! Put me down for a slice of that!
The Kut: Princess Maha – pic by Ian Bourn for Scene Sussex
I have to say this was one of the most enjoyable, if fairly short sets I have been to in a while. You have to see these guys on tour – check the poster for details. The prowess displayed indicate that this band deservedly have moved up that ladder, with the album doing well in many charts, are set to climb even higher. A flawless, enjoyable 45 minutes of live music, Thank you The Kut and cant wait till the next time!
The Kut on Tour.
The Kut are on Facebook
The Kut are on the web
Guests
Hightown Parade: There had been some last minute changes due an injury of one of the guest bands. I arrived almost on time but it was late as the schedule had been amended. I walked into an astonishing wall of sound generated by Brighton based Hightown Parade. I heard two songs but they impressed the hell outta me and will definitely keep an eye out to catch them for a full session. They were rocking it out in an almost glam rock style. A generous mix of instruments and vocals. Flamboyant and musically diverse, Infectious melodies, stomping rhythms, and a vigorous dialogue between guitar and piano. They looked and sounded great! Yep – on my “Must See” list.
Bitch Theme: Another Brighton based band I had no come across before was Bitch Theme. A band made up of four describing their output as Femme-Grunge. That sounds about right to me! “LOUD, PROUD AND UNAPOLOGETIC. A 4 piece femme-grunge band with songs about little pickles and being sad and stuff”. A lively and interesting set of about 30 minutes giving a wide variety of music. Enjoyed it and hope to see them again.
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