Some time ago, I remember reading online reviews of a garage band performing in Dublin. The writers were complaining about being verbally abused and spat upon by a guy who could not sing. They were watching an old-school punk band so!
I was reminded of this incident last night with The Death Set.
They set up on the floor of the venue and were quite insistent on getting the crowd to gather right around them because “it was better that way”. Invite a bunch of skinheads from the East End of London to bang heads like that thirty years ago and someone would finish the night going home in an ambulance. However, those days are gone and the young alternative-scene crowd eventually shuffled into place. A few even got into the proper spirit of the occassion by throwing themselves around and even knocking over the microphone at some stage.
Motherfucking Death Set!
Motherfucking Death Set!
Motherfucking, motherfucking,
Motherfucking Death Set!
The good thing is that the band really enjoyed the modest anarchy of it all, throwing guitars into the air, flinging the microphone around by the lead, leaping off tables, and dancing like crazed banshees on hot coals. Most of the time the songs were barely much more than incoherent shouts and guitar thrashes, but the frenzied pace, the frenetic dancing, and the feel-good-factor that the perennially smiling Johnny Siera brought to the performance overrode everything else.
Although Australian, Siera describes himself as hailing from Baltimore. Indeed, with his diminutive frame and hooded appearance when he first comes on, one is reminded of fellow Baltimorean Felicia “Snoop” Pearson of The Wire fame.
Opening with Impossible, the show also featured Around the World, Superzero, and Negative Thinking. They played one encore – Nirvana’s Territorial Pissings. The entire set barely creaked past the twenty-five minute mark in length. Back in the day, there might have been beer glasses thrown at the band for not putting enough of a show on. These days, they put as much energy and crowd interaction into those few moments as some of the big names put into a whole tour.
Motherfucking Death Set.
Filed under: Gigs, Music | Tagged: The Death Set
sounds like it a good gig.
It’s always good when us indie types get knocked about (figuratively if not literally) by something more along the lines of a punk rock show. Kinda happened to me earlier in the year with Xiu Xiu.
The Locust in Whelans take the biscuit though for real aural experience. On which note, you should check out Swing Kids.
Aye it was. Still annoyed though that I ended up having to miss out on that Xiu Xiu show.
The Locust are a new name for me, but I already started looking into Swing Kids, following your review of them. Thanks.
The Locust are Justin Pearson’s (singer of Swing Kids) noise terrorism band. Like Swing Kids, but 10 x more abrasive.
Yeah, like Blue Note and 43 Seconds a lot on first listen. The ninety second piano jazz intro to Disease is pretty good too!
glad you like them. if only everybody else who likes to talk shit about ‘emos’ or worse, professes themselves to be one, would listen to them too… ditto for screamo, too.
anyway, added in a bit to the review about all the connected groups: http://hardcorefornerds.blogspot.com/2008/08/swing-kids-discography-reasons-to-be.html#SKgenealogy
I like Blue Note mostly because it reminds me of RATM from their eponymous album!
Shall catch up with your blog post later when I go through my reader!