The excellently named ‘Riots Not Diets’ hosted a night of what they
like to call queercore/riot grrrl/homocore/twee punk at Sticky Mike’s a
few weeks back, putting on three great bands with a penchant for being
incredibly fucking noisy and slightly odd in their own unique way.
First up was Roseanne Barrr, a two-piece act from London who’s sound can most accurately be described as stuck somewhere between riot grrrl and what sounded like an Amazonian tribe. The intro to their set was truly terrifying – the bassist (a guy dressed as a woman) literally gave his instrument a good spanking whilst emitting animalistic screams reminiscent of 1970s horror flicks whilst the vocalist/drummer pounded away at her toms. Roseanne Barrr were a brilliant opening act, and I’m pretty sure anybody that heard this band without being familiar with the stranger corners of musical/artistic taste would be genuinely scared.
Local group Sealings followed and were equally as impressive, and again, pretty dark and disturbing. Sealings are one of the most underrated bands in Brighton, sounding a bit like a mentally unstable version of Interpol. In a haze of fuzzy, distorted guitar they hammer out lo-fi indie/grunge with a few punky parts where some crazy fast drumming is involved. They bare some similarities to My Bloody Valentine and The Pixies, which I thought to myself immediately before realising that one of them was wearing a Pixies shirt. The drummer (who wears what looks to me like a Skeletor mask, but probably isn’t) alternated between his kit and a drum machine, and it was the songs with the sequenced drums nearer the end of their set that were the darkest and noisiest. Very impressive.
Now, Divorce are a seriously good band I can’t emphasize that enough. Having listened to their debut full-length countless amounts of times, I was really excited about seeing how well their sound translates live and was thoroughly impressed. Divorce play some forcefully tinnitus-inducing, arsehole-tearing, neighbour-bothering no-wave sludge-pop-metal that’s as uncomfortable to listen to as it is enlightening. For a band with just one guitarist, Divorce are able to make a noise that even Sunn0))) would be proud of, although the fact that vocalist Jennie Fulk has a scream that at times is indistinguishable from guitar feedback helps the dynamics of their all-encompassing racket. Humourously reminding us that they are from Glasgow several times between songs, they blast through a set that included ‘Stabby Stab’, ‘Aids Of Space’ and unreleased track ‘Everybody Ruined It For Everybody’. Unfortunately for myself, there was a distinct lack of ‘Snob Value’ – my favourite track on the album – but this was more than made up for by the fact that overall they had just played one of the best shows I have witnessed so far this year.
Brighton Noise - Original Link
Divorce Bandcamp
Sealings Bandcamp
Roseanne Barrr Bandcamp
No comments:
Post a Comment