Black Rebel Motorcycle Club & Dead Combo @Electric Ballroom, London
Alejandro De Luna
Last night, the NME Awards sold out gig at the legendary Electric Ballroom in Camden brought one of the best bands in the last 15 years accompanied by a synth-punk guitar-driven NYC duo of dissonant madness.
DEAD COMBO
The electro-punk duo, Dead Combo, originally from Finland but settled in New York (not to be confused with the Portuguese folk band), brought a sound reminiscent of Suicide´s electro-punk with The Stooges, Ron Asheton´s guitar-like solos; The Jesus And Mary Chain´s claustrophobic noise; Spacemen 3´s cacophony and lots of attitude that shouted out loud: “I don´t give a fuck if you like this or not.”
With a low profile in music media and almost 10 years since their debut album; Finnish punks Harri Kupiainen and Nuutti Kataja fueled in with guitars and drum machines, definitely sound raw and uncompromised, but there is a hint of repetition and monotony in his live set that fails to captivate the audience.
BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB
If we go back to 2000 when BRMC recorded their self-titled debut, probably you will be surprised on how long does their journey has been already. The songs in BRMC´s first delivery sounded (and they still do) like a fresh raw rock ‘n’ roll tribute and despite seven brilliant full-length albums and tons of imitations nowadays, they are still among the greatest dirty rock ‘n’ roll revivalists out there.
Bass oriented “Hate The Taste” and the drugged choruses from “Beat The Devil´s Tattoo” opened BRMC psychedelic noise-driven rock n´roll set followed by Robert Levon Been father´s tribute (ex frontman in The Call) with a noisy cover of “Let The Day Begin” – first single from their last album, Specter At The Feast (2013.)
BRMC´s best moment in the night came early with a powerful selection of songs starting with the classic-to-be,“Rival”, and a selection of vintages including the dark folk of “Ain´t No Easy Way”, the unbeatable “Berlin” and the psychedelic and quintessential British sound-like, “Rifles”.
The gig continued and it brought the passages from “666 conducer”; the experimental “American X” and “Red Eyes And Tears”. Other highlights included the Stooges-like, “Six Barrell Shotgun” and the brutal riff and unhinged drums in “Conscience Killer”. As an encore, an acoustic intimate version of “Shuffle Your Feet” and the violent BRMC´s true classic, “Whatever Happened To My Rock N´Roll (Punk Song)”.
There is a sense of classic hard rock in BRMC songs accompanied by shoegaze; psychedelic passages and Detroit´s proto-punk sound reminiscent of Iggy´s most difficult but brilliant period. On top of that, the garage; the blues; the feedback, the distortion, the darkness and the hippie-like San Francisco vibe in songs like “Spread Your Love” make of BRMC a colossal explosion on stage.
Is all out there; the talent of Peter Hayes´s dark and crude guitar riffs, Robert Levon Been´s distorted bass and Leah Shapiro´s constant beating on drums. Whatever happened to your rock n´ roll but BRMC is still one of the greatest bands from the last 15 years.
Setlist
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(The Call cover)
- Encore:
- Whatever Happened to My Rock ‘n’ Roll (Punk Song)
