Say She She Shimmer with Infectious Disco/Soul at Liverpool’s Hangar 34

Say She She seems to be everywhere at the moment, radio, TV, music press, and rightly so. Silver, their new double album, comes hot on the heels of their 2022 debut, Prism and it feels like nothing can stop them. Coming out of Brooklyn, Piya, Sabrina and Nya, are a classically trained powerhouse of disco, soul and funk, openly indebted to Nile Rogers but with enough originality to not be too derivative.

The three-girl outfit is a longstanding model, and it is difficult not to draw comparisons. Their retro style lends itself much more to those sixties girl groups (The Supremes, The Ronettes, The Shangri-las) than, say, Destiny’s Child, but if they keep pumping out tracks like the current “Reeling” and “Astral Plane,” they’ll be filling arenas in no time. For a band that is still in its infancy, they are as polished and sassy as hell.

Hangar 34 in Liverpool’s Baltic Quarter already seems too small for them, and they managed to sell it out pretty quickly. It’s already packed by the time support, New York-based Abby Jeane takes the stage. She’s a perfect match for the main act and a label mate, too. Both acts have been recording for the phenomenal Colemine Records via their spin-off label Karma Chief.

Backed by The Shadowband, Abby’s sound is upfront. Her vocals are loud, and her tunes are memorable from the first listen. “Queen Bee” is a standout early in the set, and the new single “Destiny’s a Bitch” is nasty in the best possible way, allowing Abby to let rip with her growling and sneering.

The band looks great, too, very psychedelic, they could almost have been ripped straight from a Hannah Barbera cartoon, and they can play. I will be exploring Abby’s back catalogue this week.

Say She She kick off with “Reeling,” the opener from Silver and it is a banger that deserves to be played loud in parks around the world right throughout the summer. It’s a shimmering and beautiful song and a bonafide earworm.

“Cest Ci Bon” is the most obvious nod to Chic and cleverly namechecks the band name via repeat chants of “Cest Chi Chi.” It’s also their most fun track, which is probably why it is haunting the airwaves so much right now.

Each song could be a single tonight; they all have that immediate catchy quality and an unforced retro feel that can only make you feel happy. “Fortune Teller,” “Never Say Never,” and the standalone single “Trouble” all allow the three band members to take turns on vocals and occasionally break out into simple but fun dance moves.

There are a couple of surprises tonight, the first being a spot-on cover of Talking Heads “Slippery People”. It shouldn’t work, but it really does. Something in the mix makes it sound like it could be sat next to Yvonne Ellman on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. It all has that Studio 54 vibe.

“Blow My Mind” is psychedelic from start to finish, whereas “NORMA” is just plain funky, introduced by Nya as a song about Women’s rights, then adjusted to Human Rights. The repeated chorus of “We Won’t Come Back” becomes anthemic. The dreamy “Don’t You Dare Stop”, a favourite from Silver, closes the first set, and the band is allowed 15 minutes to flex their muscles without the girls. All old enough to be their Dads, these guys have been around the block a few times and look like they could tell a few tales too. They remind me a lot of the Blues Brothers band. Their set is excellent, and nobody appears to feel short-changed by the lack of Say She She for a while.

The band returns in shimmering gold outfits. At times, they remind me of The Carrie Nations, the cult fictional band from Russ Meyer’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls movie.

Their final run of songs is impeccable, starting with the impossibly catchy “Astral Plane,” clearly a crowd favourite, and working through “Questions,” “Forget me not,” and a short encore starting with the Indian-tinged “Bleeding Heart,” you can feel the time flying by. This is a gig that never drags.

The band finishes with a sure-fire pleaser, a sharp cover of The Jackson Sisters classic, “I Believe in Miracles.” Musically, it sounds like the real thing, but the vocals, for the first time tonight, aren’t quite there, dragging ever so slightly when they should be punchy. But a minor quibble: this has been a fantastic gig, and I feel lucky to have seen them close up in such a small venue; next time round, I can only imagine bigger halls and much bigger crowds. It’s written in the stars.

Silver is available now on Karma Chief Records from this location.