Alarmist / Eaten By Bears / Slipdraft / Le Tissier Eleven/11 Label Tour
The Twisted Pepper, Saturday, February 18
There are gigs you go to, that are good. There are ones that are shit. And there are gigs you go to, where your comparative scale is thrown into very fucking sharp focus, because its just that visceral. The Alarmist and Eaten by Bears Eleven/Eleven A/V gig in the Twisted Pepper on Saturday most certainly fell into that final category. The dublin date was the final of eight for the tour, that saw the two bands and their compatriots - in charge of the amazing visuals - traverse the length and breath of the country, no doubt leaving a hell of an impression wherever they went.
Alarmist
Math rock. Please discuss. Or save yourself the time scrolling through Wikipedia and go to see this band. They are stunning, and coupled with the amazing sound in the Twisted Pepper and the captivating improvised visuals by their A/V label mates Slipdraft and LeTissier, the whole show is quite a spectacle. Their music is frenetic, impossibly structured and highly conversational, all without a word being spoken. They kicked off the night with “Vitamin Saturday”, and holy hell, you were thrown backwards with the force of the noise. These boys are tight as fuck live, and have a collective synergy that belies the fact that there is only four of them onstage, that, and the fact that each member of the band effectively plays between one and four instruments simotaniously at any given time. The quintet also played a few songs that were new to me, including a new song (who’s name i didn’t catch - sorry) that began with static, syncopated noises, then moved through into strong ambient guitar lines, and had chasing key lines throughout the song. Its frantic crescendo rose to its height before stopping dead into complete silence. Their songs are consistently beautifully structured, and always slightly unexpected. “Clapper”, one of my personal favorites, is an absolute winner of a song, notable for its multilayering of instrumental ‘call’ and ‘answer’ lines between instruments, and a dual drum solo by the pair of drummers, that is a bit of a trip. The boys, by their own admission, spend far too much time pedantically structuring their songs, but upon listening, you can hear every second of effort that goes into each multi facetted composition. This is clever music, that willingly challenges the notion of a ‘classic’ song structure. The joy (er, relief?) from the boys as they finished their set was almost palpable, but surely betwixt with a fair amount of sadness at the completion of what was a highly successful tour. Their self titled E.P. is for sale on their bandcamp for just a fiver. “It’s deadly!” was the roar that came out of the crowd when the lads mentioned this on the night. You know what, slightly drunk punter? I couldn’t agree more.
Eaten By Bears
Vicious. Classical. Math rock, but then there is strains of unexpected steel drums (sounding) samples as well. Eatenbybears music verges on undefinable, but they knocked the air out of my lungs when they started playing on Saturday night. They are a cacophony of guitar, violin, drums and angst ridden, shouted vocals. They are all consuming. Go immediately to their bandcamp and listen. “Duchenne Smile” was one of their first songs, it’s all staccato half words slamming into the microphone, set to a similar bouncing violin/drum line, building up into a smashing repetition of its vocal line - “Smile While You Still Have Your Teeth” - amazing. The angst and ferocity of the music is a constant, and the silhouette of ripping violin bow strings in the blackened room, backlit by the multicolored, random visuals behind the band was an entrancing sight. “Molar” is another cracking song off the Eatenbybears “Teeth” album - and live, is raceous and builds into a blinding, pandemonium of instrumental noise. Set to this backdrop, the lads have a somewhat unexpected ease of character onstage, they are funny, understated and humble. Its a strange dichotomy, given the music they play, you’d almost expect them to be higher maintenance. At one point, guitarist Olan, in thanking their indispensable A/V team (Slipdraft / LeTissier) swore “I herby dedicate the rest of my life to Ciaran, please don’t put me on mute!”. Bit charming, won’t lie. Their final song was an absolute belter, with a dual vocal and absolutely incredible 2,000,000 mile an hour drumming. It was such a show that i find myself reaching for a few too many superlatives, but I really don’t even care. Only thing missing - a few tears… The Eatenbybears boys had mentioned a few days previous on twitter they were going to literally cry at the end of the tour. Gimme my tears boys.
Slipdraft / LeTissier
This tour was only one half music. The Eleven/Eleven is an Audio Visual label, and embraces the notion that the visual aspect of shows is just as important as the music. I was a bit devastated that this was one gig that i hadn’t brought my camcorder along to, because the visual projections by Slipdraft and LeTissier were mesmerizing. Projected onto a pre-made white crystalline looking shape, bolts of light slipped around the perimeter of the cut out with pin point accuracy as the images within the center of the shape echoed the music being performed. In particular, there were great long shots of Eatenbybears performing in a warehouse and some intense steadycam shots, amongst a myriad of more “random” imagery(though I sure there was a story behind the inclusion of each and every one). Take a minute to check both these artist groups out, their work is stellar.
Also, just to mention, the good folks over at the Eleven/Eleven label have, as a thank you to all the people that came out to the shows, released a free download of Alarmist / Eaten By Bears, along with a lovely set of instructions on how to accurately draw a horse. The deal is, you get the music, but you send back a drawing for them to use in their visual show. Mines gonna look more like a squashed cat (even following instruction) but its a pretty fair deal i reckon.
(find links to all the mentioned artists by clicking on their name)
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