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| Drum Eyes conjuring structure from noise. |
"Abandon hope of healthy hearing, all ye who attend this gig." Those words should have been scrawled on the door of the Labour Club on Saturday 23rd January. It's clear that this gig is going to be an acquired taste from the start, DJ Rajinder sets the mood with his set of constant noise jams with the occasional fuzzy pop song being dropped. Drum Eyes receive a great turn out of mostly adults, the youngsters among the crowd are Labour Club die-hards. There is a general sense of anticipation in the air, the crowd seem to be expecting something. But what? Wotwolff do a good job of rocking up the almost vibe-less room with their bash and shout blues rock. The twosome make a glorious racket and they make up for the lack of conventional band member numbers by rocking out like their lives depended on it. It's hard not to get swept up with their enthusiastic anger. The drummer looks and sounds like someone you don't want to mess with. Especially when he is pummeling the life out of a defenceless drum kit. It's a good job drum kits don't have feelings. You think that sounds ear shredding? On top of the beastly beats and cymbal smashing are discordant chords draped in distortion with plenty of feedback interludes and blues riffs. Singer/guitarist Kev really knows how to make his guitar wail. Wotwolff help you to shed the stress of modern life by simply screaming it off your mind. They are a perfect choice of support band when it comes to noise rock gigs. Now to see what all the fuss about Drum Eyes is about...
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| Wotwolff let it rip. |
It's hard not to get excited waiting for Drum Eyes to play. The stage is littered with equipment: from guitar pedals to keyboards, all in a sea of wires. Then there's the fact that there is two drum kits set up. The track pumping through the sound system slowly fades out, giving way to a double drummer drum intro. From here on out, Drum Eyes craft sound-scapes from tribal rhythms, bass work outs, a violin with strange altering effects on it and a general wall of shifting sound. There are references from all the great styles of rock: from progressive to kraut-rock to noise rock. They know how to make it danceable too, with twinkling synth lines and heavy bass lines. There is hardly time to catch your breath either, as most songs merge into the next with professional craftsmanship. It almost feels as if they are making it all up before your very eyes, but it soon becomes clear that these planet sized noise arrangements are carefully calculated. Each member of Drum Eyes really gets into what they are doing too, there is no self indulgence here. They want the audience to feel what they are feeling. Especially their bass player who immediately connects with the audience through his use of hand gestures. First he mimes playing an imaginary keyboard to the beat of his band then he starts driving an invisible car whilst smoking a cigarette. The crowd mime straight back at him. The fun doesn't stop here however.
On their final, and most out of control song, their enthusiastic bassist jumps straight into the group of punters at the front of the stage igniting a frenzied mosh pit at the point of the song's almighty kick in. Everyone just lost their inhibitions and went nuts: blame it on the music. Then they leave, just like that. It takes a while to get out of the zone they drop you in. But its safe to say that tonight's crowd have been treated to two different ways of noise. The first being a very primal, fast noise. The second being a well calculated noise odyssey. I think I speak for all the attendees when I say "my ears hurt".
POWER CHORD LIVE RATING: P P P P
GIG HIGHLIGHT: When the lead guitarist from Drum Eyes decided to let his hair down and let rip on some killer guitar shredding.
BEST PERFORMED SONG OF THE NIGHT: "Future Police" By Drum Eyes
Want more from these bands? Visit:
http://www.myspace.com/drumeyes
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Wotwolff/124085397649558
Written by Jack Parker for Power Chord Music Blog. Photography by Jack Parker. Awesome.
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