Death From Above 1979 - Mean Fiddler, Tuesday August 23rd
Sebastien Grainger, drummer and singer for Canadian techno tinged noise terrorists Death From Above 1979 doesn't crowd surf per se. He walks messianically over the heads of a much adoring crowd and to say that the sweat is dripping off him is like saying that a bit of water goes over Victoria Falls. No wonder the guy's skinny as a rake. How he and his partner in crimes against silence, bass man and occasional keyboard player, Jesse Keeler survive the hour is beyond us. They don't just look knackered. They can hardly walk off stage.
The sheer, raw energy that steamrollers the audience tonight is a sight to behold. Grainger is playing so fast his drum sticks strobe themselves. Keeler, whose demonic beard makes us wonder if his eyes are going to start glowing red, seems to have his own personal moshpit going on. He attacks his bass the way hardened shredders like Slipknot's Mick Thompson attack their six strings. With nothing to offset the rhythmic crunch other than Grainger's screams it's like listening to the first Metallica album with the guitars taken off. It's solid raw fury, dark and nasty, and an hour's about as much as we can take, despite the crowd's bellowing for more.
With no air whatsoever in the Mean Fiddler, a room temperature that could cook beans and sweat pouring from our sweat it's a struggle to keep it together. Even the hardiest looking skins are making their way out of the moshpit along with the rock kids and trend setters although they're still loving every moment of it. However subjecting yourself to such an unrelenting low end assault, that at times feels as if being on the end of a fist attached to a metronome set to speed, takes a particular committment that tonight is beyond us. We leave more than happy to have been a part of the DFA destructathon but somewhat relieved that we won't have to do it again.
