These Monsters - Wharf Chambers, Leeds - June 15 2013 (Live Review)
Friday, 21 June 2013
Written by Ben Bland
After making their fans wait an age for second record ‘Heroic Dose’, These Monsters at least had the decency to put together a noise-rock fan’s wet dream of a bill to celebrate the release, dragging along Hawk Eyes and Blacklisters to open the show.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the glorious weather, it is not until Hawk Eyes actually start playing that the back room of the Wharf Chambers becomes swamped with fans of all things loud and scuzzy. Ripping into Crack Another One, from the utterly riff-tastic ‘Mindhammers’ EP, Hawk Eyes remind everyone in attendance once again that they are one of the finest rock bands in the country at the moment.
Last year’s ‘Ideas’ was a non-stop barrage of riffs catchier than the deadliest tropical diseases and, with Paul Astick’s vocal bark even more acerbic live than on record, it’s clear that Hawk Eyes really do belong at the noisier end of the spectrum, despite how deceptively technical many of their tracks are.
Blacklisters approach things from another direction entirely. They are a bass-heavy rumbling of fuzzy destruction, with frontman Billy Mason-Wood drawling over everything like a young Mark E. Smith in a particularly pissed off mood.
This band are what noise rock is all about. Clubfoot by Kasabian and Trickfuck are already old favourites to this audience, and last year’s ‘BLKLSTRS’ debut remains a superb document of their stripped-back, raw approach to live performance.
These Monsters have perhaps slipped down the pecking order, as a result of their fairly low profile since 2010’s ‘Call Me Dragon’, but it’s clear from the reaction that they receive here tonight that everyone in attendance thinks they’re brilliant. The new material is so straight to the point that it’s hard to do anything other than lap it all up.
This is noise rock that doesn’t give the listener much of a chance to ignore it and is all the stronger as a result. On the evidence of this performance there is no reason why These Monsters shouldn’t go on to receive all the acclaim that their friends in Pulled Apart by Horses have done over recent times, so direct is their newfound approach.
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