A Place to Bury Strangers is affectionately hailed as ‘New York’s loudest band’ and on tonight’s evidence this is hard to argue. Support Japandroids, who are no means quiet, claim that they make them ‘sound like an acoustic folk band’. The tiny downstairs basement of the Captain’s Rest goes no way at all to restrict the loudness, if anything the enclosed environment only goes to enhance this reputation.
Still, you cannot go to this gig and not throw some word to Japandroids who are gathering major hype at the moment and are possibly one of the reasons why tonight is sold out. The Vancouver duo’s brand of noise rock is achieving more followers everyday, so much so that they have a headline show booked at King Tut’s in February which will surely be a hot ticket. Unfortunately though, the band’s first visit to Glasgow is plagued with microphone issues and even the ‘sound magicians’ could not save the day completely. Sounding ‘as much like Lady Gaga as possible’ was the aim, don’t worry this was not going to happen, but enough promise and energy is expelled to have people intrigued enough to have a further listen.
A Place To Bury Strangers emerge in an almost pitch black room, in an filled to capacity venue, the only light shone on them for the first three quarters of their set comes courtesy of a sole projector at the back the room. This creates an atmosphere suiting of the shoegazing beauty of their music that seems ever more perfect in a live setting. True enough the volume is a slight distraction; I certainly would not advise seeing this band without earplugs, the fact they sell them at their merchandise stand says it all, but with this investment made the bands set is even more glorious than they sound on record.
For the last quarter we find the minimal lighting replaced by drastic strobe effect, which near engulfs the band from the audience’s vision. Again, this effect only emphasises their music, as the band seem to increase the volume even more while drenched in a sea of white light. Closer ‘Ocean’, from 2007’s self-titled standout, is probably the best track of the evening. The band take the song to new extremes from the recorded version dragging it out to ridiculous lengths while holding a gawping crowd with sheer intensity. The forceful end to the set definitely goes the furthest to justify the band’s current tagline, which will have to go some way to be topped.
A Place to Bury Strangers second full-length ‘Exploding Head’ was released on Mute in October this year.
Picture: Sam Fenn
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