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Central London is a dangerous catwalk this evening. The pavement
along
Oxford Street is nigh on impassable with swaggering losers, impatient
commuters and clueless tourists. Droves of buses and taxis floor it
like boy
racers while killer cyclists seem even more bloodthirsty this evening.
You
feel relived to have survived when you turn the corner to the Mean
Fiddler.
Then another catwalk-cum-identity parade greets you. Fashion victims,
metallers, old timers and the odd suit - a true enough example of the
kind
of crowd Death From Above 1979 can umbrella.
The Rogers Sisters do their best to warm the former with a
reasonable
half hour of bubble gum garage rock. Much of this consisted of moderate
rotation between B52s and Von Bondie-styled bouncy
sounds.
Despite relocating to New York's ultra hip Williamsberg neighbourhood,
they
don't seem quite ready to drop the classic Detroit sound most Detroit
bands
carry when starting out. Given that the garage rock train ship passed
these
shores a good couple of years ago, unless NY's karma provokes a radical
change, these Sisters are just gonna be chasing the tugboats.
The wall of sound DFA 1979 can generate out of two conventional live
instruments, namely a bass guitar and a drum kit, is simply staggering.
Wherever you happen to be standing, the sheer power of their sound can
pretty much pick you up and hurl you around the venue, making The
White
Stripes look and sound like The Carpenters.
And boy are they loud. We're talking the big league here - The
Mastodons, Slayers and Metallicas of this world. But if
you're
suspect about the authenticity of what these two Canadians were
knocking out
on tape then I implore you to witness the live feast. Sebastian
Grainger
abuses his kit like a lunatic. At points its implausible how he seems
to
sustain the lung capacity to project his vitriolic vocals on song.
His cohort Jesse Keeler displays similar invulnerability to the
human
metabolism, chucking himself about the stage like a raggy doll while
furiously gorging on his four strings but with the nous of skilled lead
guitarist. Like many a hardcore band the tightness of DFA 1979 as a
unit
must be smiled upon, and in the case, not understated.
From the barrage that is Go Home, Get Down to the deliciously dirty
Little Girl, each and every song of the hour is a seismic pleasure.
With
prominent slots at Reading and Leeds this weekend and an extensive
support
slot for the Queens Of The Stone Age / Nine Inch Nails US
tour, you'd be a fool to give them a miss. Be warned though. A serious
risk
of tinnitus exists.
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