Touche Amore - The Fleece, Bristol - December 4 2013 (Live Review)
Thursday, 05 December 2013
Written by Huw Baines
There’s nothing particularly new or revelatory in the idea of a hardcore show as a cathartic release, but in Touché Amoré we may have a band that can make it an artform.
Dodging a constant stream of crowdsurfers and regularly pausing to thrust his microphone into the heaving mass of bodies swamping the Fleece’s stage, vocalist Jeremy Bolm smiled his face off while recounting confessional tales of anxiety, mortality and, finally, self-acceptance.
From minute one, it was apparent just how well-drilled a unit the band currently are. Drummer Elliot Babin - who pulled a double shift as frontman of Dad Punchers, the evening’s opening band and likable alt-rock revivalists - provided a thunderous base to build from, powering feral renditions of Steps and Gravity, Metaphorically, the latter taken from their recent split with former tourmates Pianos Become The Teeth.
‘Is Survived By’, the band’s latest full-length, was also well represented, with Just Exist dropped into the set early on and To Write Content arriving on the back of finely tuned melodic work by guitarists Clayton Stevens and Nick Steinhardt. Harbor, meanwhile, became a crushing singalong as the crowd screamed the opening lines right back at Bolm and his bandmates.
That trick was repeated during the closing refrain of Honest Sleep, from ‘...To The Beat Of A Dead Horse’, and Amends, the ferocious closing track from ‘Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me’. Bolm also grabbed the focus of everyone in the room during the evocative payoff of ~: “If actions speak louder than words, I’m the most deafening noise you’ve heard.”
Where Self Defense Family, the second band on the bill, split the room with their enigmatic, experimental post-hardcore, with certain sections of the crowd failing to cotton on to frontman Patrick Kindlon’s acerbic sense of humour, Touché Amoré were embraced wholeheartedly. Their new record is a serious proposition and their live show is equally intense. See them.
Thu December 05 2013 - LEEDS Cockpit
Fri December 06 2013 - BRIGHTON Audio
Sat December 07 2013 - NORWICH Waterfront
Sun December 08 2013 - NOTTINGHAM Rock City
Tue December 10 2013 - GLASGOW Stereo
Wed December 11 2013 - LONDON Underworld, Camden
Thu December 12 2013 - MANCHESTER Roadhouse
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