Watching Girls play live can seem less like a rock show and more like voyeurism. Their much hyped debut album (Album) is a sorrowful pop masterpiece; it is intimate, sad and intensely personal- so was their performance at the Earl.

Girls frontman Christopher Owens took the stage looking as if he just awoke from a nap. Small, thin and disheveled, he wore his long, tangled blond hair swooped to the right and a bulky red and white speckled sweater. He was also wearing orange lipstick and matching nail polish. To complete the look of casual vagrancy, one of his shoes was untied. Picking up his guitar he sat himself on the bass drum and went about absently strumming for a couple of minutes while the rest of the band fell in. He then stood up and Girls opened with ‘Laura,’ their third single off of Album.

Owens proceeded to scrunch up his face and pour out his soul with eyes closed. It felt almost uncomfortable at times seeing this guy sing with such earnest sadness, but those raw emotions of despair, while never pretty, are what makes Girls’ Album great.

For the most part the set was subdued and Owens didn’t interact much with the crowd; not out of indifference, but seemingly out of shyness. The highlights were great versions of ‘Hellhole Ratrace’ which flowed effortlessly into ‘Morning Light’, the b-side ‘Life In San Francisco’ and the set ender ‘Lust for Life’. Girls can crank it up when they have to and the crowd responded whenever they did, but it was evident that they just don’t have that many up-tempo songs in their playbook.

They came out for a two song encore playing a couple of b-sides that didn’t make Album: ‘Substance’ (guess what that’s about) and perhaps their slowest, saddest song in ‘Oh Boy’ which Owens’ seemed to whisper out. It’s a great song, but not a show ender for anyone else.

After seeing Girls live, I could see them getting a label as a studio band rather than a live band, but I think that is ultimately unfair. Girls are personal, emotional - if you are looking to dissolve yourself in a crowd or bump up against some stranger you will be disappointed - but if you want to see some beautifully performed and well crafted songs of melancholia, this is your band.