The Courettes and Quick Romance are pure dynamite at The Wedgewood Rooms | Review

Musically, the Bath-based four-piece play straight-down-the-line punk, but they bring a vitality and lust for life that’s infectious.

There’s also a sense of playfulness there, as shown on their debut single Brian Jones’s Hair. And in frontwoman Matilda Scotland they’ve definitely got a rising star.

This is the kind of feral youth we want.

Headliners The Courettes have become regular visitors to Portsmouth in recent years, and it’s always good to have them back.

A husband/wife duo, Flavia Couri sings and plays guitar, while husband Martin Couri plays drums (with his kit upfront, stage right) and provides backing vocals. Sonically, they’ve spent a career combining the DNA of The Ramones with ’60s girl groups.

We’re at the tail end of the tour for their most recent album, The Soul of The Fabulous Courettes. Once this leg is done, they’re supporting punk legends The Damned on a coast-to-coast US tour before they settle down to record the next album.

This is the final night of 22 gigs in 22 days, and if the pair are flagging, they don’t show it – both display relentless energy levels and are drenched in sweat by the end of the show.

Not to let their support act have the only Rolling Stones-themed number, Boom Boom Boom is about Charlie Watts, while Trash Can Honey is pure-pop as only the know how, and Want You! Like a Cigarette captures the giddy thrill of infatuation.

Boom! Dynamite features their usual extended section with suitably explosive audience participation.

And there’s taste of new material with forthcoming single Killer Kiss – the audience are already singing along by its end.

Their first encore, Keep Dancing is a perfect example of their ability to couch bleak subject matter in upbeat songs – catchy, a singalong chorus, but deliciously dark!

This hard-working band deserve your love.