Friday, February 28, 2014

GOD DAMN, Live Review (Sunflower Lounge 27/2/14 Part 2)

YAWWN. Heavy Metal, a genre now overridden with bands who either take themselves far too seriously or wear fringes and scream about  stuff.
GOD DAMN are a breath of fresh air in a landscape of toxic gas. Now shed down to a two piece (ear shatterling loud duos are definitely a thing this year) God damn are signed to One Little Indian (Bjork's Label!) and i think they could do for metal what Alt-J have done for Folk, reinventing it yet making it accessible for new audiences.
Rather than pretentious solo's we get screeching feedback noise, no Bass, and amps that go up to 15.
On drums we have a man who looks like Andre the Giant. on Vocals and guitar we have Thom Edward who jumped into the crowd seconds into the first song. The raw primal energy set the crowd in this tiny room moshing almost immediately. Even I was moshing about, and I'm usually pretty restrained.
 Which is why my shoulders and jaw now hurt. At one point I swear I got Tinnitus, as these songs were played LOUD, so loud that some audience members wore earplugs.
The set was mostly from the bands amazing EP's although they had all been a bit stripped down considering God Damn is now a duo, most of the noise came from the guitar pedals, which were almost an instrument in its own right. you just couldn't help wanting to go crazy, and really, it was a lot of fun.
After a few songs people stopped moshing and started crowdsurfing, and by the end band members, audience members, drums and guitars were all being carried over my head. There was a stage invasion but not before God Damn had played 'Dangle like Skeletons'. A quiet ballad, in the same sort of way that 'Fuckabout' By Drenge is a quiet ballad, and had thanked 'The Wytches' for taking them on tour, out of all the amazing bands they could have picked.

One audience member said that The Wytches following that would be like 'Coldplay being supported by Slayer'. The Wytches are a band known for being a great live act,  but they still would have a tough time following that.

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