Auf der Maur rocks like a real li’l MAdM

Following her tour with A Perfect Circle, ahead of her debut album being released but with a special invitation to close this year‘s NME Awards shows/tour - the place is heaving. Well, the lady’s earned her stripes with bassing for Hole and Smashing Pumpkins but now - Melissa Auf der Maur has liberated herself from two of the rock’s biggest egos to embark on a very promising solo career.

MAdM’s taken time to come up with her self-titled solo debut album for reasons: she was doing it mainly herself, financing it to avoid being dictated by record company what and how to do it and, most importantly, wanted to do it right. And, has she… The galloping pace of ‘Skin Receiver’ - apparently about Courtney Love - is enough to convince you how she can maul your emotions with a dominatrix expertise.

Melissa looks unscarred by what she must have gone through the past decade since leaving her native Montreal. But, it has also toughened her for the fronting she does masterfully. The general tone of her music is pop-rock but in her case the term is extra-wide and it embraces everything from Led Zeppelin-size chords to Goth-like Siouxsie And The Banshee-ness, a tad of Hole, a dollop of stoner rocking [Kyuss-type], harmonised tracks, epic and emotional cuts…

Ms Rock can do it all and with evident ease: she is the focus of the show without overwhelming the proceedings and there is plenty of opportunity to notice the contribution of the others. But, ‘Followed By Waves’, ‘Taste You’, ‘I’ll Be Anything You Want’, ‘Beast Of Honor’, are simply dominated by Melissa during this seriously rocking show. Her voice is very fine instrument that handles shouty, rock-out style as much as more melodic, feminine - without wishing to be un-PC…

The album guests include Josh Homme [of Queens of The Stone Age/The Eagles Of Death Metal], Brandt Bjorn [ex-Kyuss], James Iha [former Smashing Pumpkins], Eric Erlandson [x-Hole] but none is missed tonight because the recorded songs have become live ‘beasts’. They bite, they cajole, they entrance, flirt, put a spell… With these songs, this kind of playing and her looks, she is more than a contender for the Queen Of Rock.

Laughing Mrs Destiny plotted for her former boss, C. Love, to release her debut solo album a week ago but it looks like the Cobain widow can only hope for a jail term as a career move… MAdM - that’s what Melissa should have called this venture because it could be pronounced ‘Madam’ to indicate her uber-sexuality as well as a little self-dig - is a music lover who needs no help and avoids relying on stereotypes.

On ‘American Sweetheart’ Love sings “Well, they say rock is dead and they are probably right.” Indeed, looking at the Brit talent - incapable to do the right stuff anymore, just the opposing one… MAdM certainly, and damn right, disagrees.