I hadn’t come to this club to see any band in particular, but noticing the name of 400 BLOWS on the list came as a surprise – surely not the 400 Blows mostly forgotten from the old UK wave of early 1980s proto-industrial techno-bods? Well, no - this new band, a Los Angeles trio clad in black cop outfits, are quite another proposition, and with no expectations I found myself captivated by the best new band I’ve seen all year.
Erupting with a cheerful ditty called 'The Beauty of Internal Darkness', the singer spits out his lyrics in a petulant snarl while his body pivots and spins like a man trying to box the invisible man, the guitarist stares intently from beneath an increasingly sweat-soaked brow, his instrument wrenching out quiet / loud alternates to make Jack White cross-eyed, while behind them the drummer thrashes around like atoms in the heart of the sun, pounding his minimalist kit in a manner akin to Dave Grohl attempting the works of Dillinger Escape Plan. It’s the sort of spectacle that transfixes everyone in the room regardless of whether you’re a fan or not, anticipating what ingenious stop-start combinations they will wrench from their limited resources, or simply gawping at the prodigious drumming.
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Their intensity and bludgeoning lack of compromise makes it unlikely that superstardom will follow, but for connoisseurs of the alt-noise scene the heartiest of recommendations can be offered.
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