aaamusic | On 29, Nov 2010

London, 24th November

There couldn’t have been a better venue to host A Place To Bury Strangers and their ‘sonic annihilation’ sound – as they define it.

Supported by a majestic light show, what immediately strucks the listener is the massive volume of their music. If you are a lover of soft music this isn’t the place for you tonight.

From the first track I know I’ll see you it is clear that they are not messing around – the sound architecture is complex, dark and empowering, at points melancholy, leaving you with the sensation of witnessing a dreamy state scene: they are breaking boundaries between reality and fantasy.

Next up is In your heart: I can feel the floor shaking and my whole body vibrating to the sound. The wall of sound makes it virtually impossible to concentrate, or even notice, the lyrics, yet one feels totally captured by the trio and their magnetic energy.

One of the highlights of the set has to be To Fix The Gash In Your Head, when XOYO literally imploded and the crowd exploded on massive cheers for what it is a damn good tune. Lunadon bangs his guitar against the pillars framing the stage, while Ackerman repeatedly swings his guitar around the air and smashes it down again to the stage. Mesmerizing.

Another fan favourite is It Is Nothing, taken from their latest fatigue Exploding Head.

The strobe lighting keeps adding elements to the sound-induced psychosis that Shoreditch found itself lost in, while the band have somehow managed to make their loud drone of a rock noise become sound melodic, despite itself. Beautiful.

Closing track is the garage rock tinged (but far more full-on) Deat Beat. No encore. The band simply pops back on stage to knock their amps on the floor to silence the ringing feedback they’d left behind, leaving everyone with hunger for more.

Simply the best I’ve ever been to.

Author: Laura Oliver