Fucked Up, DZ Deathrays,Hundred Bad Guys With Swords @Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane(09/12/2011)

Wed 21st Dec, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Writing a review of a Fucked Up show is like trying to recount an overly personal and only somewhat funny joke – you had to be there. But that’s what I’m here to do so here goes.

First up tonight were Hundred Bad Guys With Swords. The partly Rocketsmiths-powered trio pack a punch and have managed to draw an impressively large crowd for this hour of the night. Three young lads, charismatic frontman with a fresh yet familiar sound. All seems well during the first half of the set until more and more songs crop up that make you feel as though you’ve just turned over to Triple M. Two-pronged screaming, stomp-around drums and a mother-load of dynamic shifts round out the end of the set, leaving the crowd wondering whether that jam we just witnessed was rehearsed or improvised.

Super secret, special surprise band DZ Deathrays are next. The Brisbane metal-dance-something band (seriously, what are they doing?), singer decked-out in an Iron Maiden shirt, mesmerise the audience with their spinning, flowing locks. Most people’s reaction to the clash of metal riffs with disco-drumbeats is to just dance, and it’s obvious that everyone is having as much fun as the two guys on stage – which is a lot. For a second they sound grunge but then the disco drums come back and… now we’re thrashing. Two words – Youth. Energy.

Canadian hardcore experimentalists Fucked Up have drawn an interesting crowd of curious and confused hipsters (possibly because of the venue choice?) and long-time fans.

Damian “Pink Eyes” Abraham and crew get right to work by jumping into Queen of Hearts – the first of many songs to be played from their new album David Comes to Life.

Three songs in and Abraham is already wading through the crowd, having stated that he would “...take a club of excited people over 40 000 people who don’t care who we are any day”. It’s obvious this is a dig at their spot supporting Foo Fighters.

Abraham emerges a few songs later, mic cord wrapped ‘round his bald head. He shakes it off like a sweaty dog before ploughing into I Hate Summer, passing the mic around the chanting audience. Abraham spends most of the set rolling all around the first few rows and clambering in and out of the crowd. The audience lap it all up, sharing the mic with him to scream along every word, perhaps most impressively when singing The Other Shoe’s “dying on the inside/dying on the inside”.

At this point a fan runs on stage to hand over a beer, and on go the on-stage theatrics. Comparisons with Les Savy Fav’s Tim Harrington’s live show aren’t far off the mark. Abraham is a similarly high-energy, stout, loveable front-man with his bald head, beard and belly on display. He makes being a big, sweaty, half-naked guy seem cool, and he’s got the whole audience watching his every move. It does, however, pay to take your eyes off of Abraham’s antics to watch the rest of the band and notice how incredibly tight they are.

The Chemistry of Common Life’s Crooked Head and Police, one of the band’s many 7” releases, are chugged through and crowd pleaser Son the Father bring the main set to a close.

The Canadians return with older track Baiting the Public and wish us all a very hardcore Christmas with their rendition of Jingle Bells (they seem to like their Christmas songs), leaving us wondering why all Christmas carols don’t sound like this.

Fucked Up are a bunch of really cool people who make good music, put on amazing live shows and have earned themselves “cult” status for just being damn good at what they do.