Taking to the chintz carpet arena of Jospeh's Well after three young, spunkglazed bands have tore it up - or tried - FULC have the air of malicious Old Testament demons, waiting patiently in the shadows as the minions work over the crowd – immense sonic battering – and then appear in a cloud of mustard gas to drag everyone to Hell. Front man Duane Walker is shakes and sweats, battering his guitar, eyeballs rolled back red in the sockets, fluttering lids, working the pit (maybe 7 people) into self destruction (one well built fellow flying high and wild into a sliver of a girl, sending her sprawling).
FULC are on the road to promote their new album "Biting Insomnia" and although most of the set wasn’t introduced I assume a lot of it was made up of new tracks...but the crowd ate it all up, especially the maniac few at the front. Wherever they came from, each song was polished to perfection, never getting sunk in the metal soup of grinding noise, but keeping the melodies and riffs crystal sharp. ‘Taken Guilty’, for instance, switches from restrained melody to bruising metal and back again, with fluid ease and for me, this was FULC’s saving grace – warm uppers Nerve Engine flew closest to the FULC sound but somehow they lost it in the noise.
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A different breed of metal maybe, but FULC managed to keep it varied and interesting with some good-time rock posturing chucked in for good measure, rolling around on the floor wrestling the guitar like a poison animal. I dunno, usually you can identify the main band from the support by some weird aura of professionalism and it was the case here. Or maybe it was because they were on last, either way FULC seemed to know exactly what they were doing - chunks of heavy screaming and bursts of intensity with high-whining guitars, chugging bass and spidery off-kilter riffs...very good. FULC sound just as good as bands who have hit the big time.
I guess the acid test of a gig is whether you find yourself clock watching. I’d been in Joseph’s Well for hours, in a dark sweating room, pummelled by noise and slipping slowly into stupor and I still enjoyed FULC. They definitely seemed to breathe a lot of life into the place, lifting sagging, pasty white shoulders. Good songs. Good show.
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