Live: Death From Above 1979

6th October 2011

Academy 1

8/10

The huge backdrop looming over the Academy 1 stage tonight tells you pretty much everything you need to know about Death from Above 1979’s history to this point; zombified, cartoon versions of drummer Sebastian Grainger and bassist Jesse Keeler are depicted emerging either side of a gravestone reading ‘DFA 1979 2001-2006’, and indeed it’s a visual summary with all the subtlety and restraint of the band’s musical style.

Announcing their arrival with an utterly brutal rendition of ‘Turn It Out’, the Toronto duo are clearly hell-bent on making up for lost time, tearing through material from their only record to date, 2004’s You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine, with a level of aggression that borders on the disturbing. Eschewing the conventional insistence on rock music being centred around the electric guitar, DFA rely simply on a blistering rhythm section, along with the occasional smattering of synth, to create an effusive blend of raw punk and slick funk rock  that has tonight’s audience moshing and dancing in equal measure. With no new material to air – and, indeed, no indication as to whether any has or will be written – the eighty-minute set is fleshed out with a slew of early EP material that’s sadly lost on large swathes of the crowd, and unsurprisingly it’s the big hitters that truly set the room alight – ‘Blood on Our Hands’ inspires a manic singalong, with ‘Black History Month’s slithering bass proving irresistibly danceable and the riff from set highlight ‘Romantic Rights’ threatening to tear a hole in the roof. They might not record any more music, they might not even be friends, but there’ll be an item less on many a bucket list after tonight – an incredibly vital performance for a band that once, by their own admission, seemed dead and buried.