Narc. Magazine Online
Reliably informed
Ali Welford experiences a face-melting night of formidable bands
It’s a rare thing indeed for Blown Out to be dethroned in the volume stakes, yet this does nothing to supress a typically mighty opening to this most formidable of bills. It’s not too often that you get a good view of them either, but tonight’s thunderous maelstrom takes place sans smoke machine, offering a clear, high-definition image of Newcastle’s finest cosmic din.
Gnod get heads spinning too – though in their case the effect is more akin to being struck repeatedly with a rusty shovel. Incendiary throughout, their set carries one of the most forceful openers my ears have faced in the 15-minute Donovan’s Daughters. Setting out as an ominous, menacing dirge, its gradual hitches in heaviness prove little preparation for a climax of truly nuclear proportions; a blistering eruption whose aural impact is nothing short of barbaric.
Having been practically swept off stage when the same touring duo visited The Cluny last May, the fear at this point was that White Hills were about to experience a bout of déjà vu. Tonight, though, NYC duo Dave W. and Ego Sensation more than hold their own, tempering their psychedelic core with an industrial bite that’s as tumultuous as it is absorbing. Brooding, experimental and – in its own right – utterly face-melting. Same again next year?
