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The Handsome Family: Live in the UK

Gavin Martin, Uncut, February 2000

BEFORE A note's been sung or a chord struck, Rennie Sparks has invited the audience back to her shoebox-sized dressing room for shrimp cocktails. As the show progresses, she relays surreal details of her squirrel-infested nightmares, dispenses wisdom from her mother ("When she heard this one", she said, 'Somebody needs an antidepressant'"), makes suggestive but derisory allusions to the sex life she shares with her husband and musical partner, Brett, and worries that the crowd packed in front of the small stage may be flesh-eating zombies.

Total word count of piece: 361

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