By DJ Astrocreep

A first gig back (finally) after Covid restrictions sees me venture back across to regular haunt Manchester, in this case, The Peer Hat, to take in the post-punk delectations of Girls In Synthesis, along with local supports Bones Shake and The Dirt. The gig is running late when I arrive, so I have a drink, settle on a stool and chat with those around me.

The Dirt start off with spoken word anarchist poetry over some electronic backing, before a guitarist joins after the intro. It’s strangely hypnotic, as we get a noise gate guitar over the top of the electronic bass backing and the vocals carry on, spitting out the lyrics in anger and disgust at the system we live in, the words voicing the sense of menace we get from the backing. It almost reminds you, in some ways of Hawkwind, dragged into a modern two-piece setting, in terms of the setup up delivery from each side.

I find their music and aim quite easy to appreciate and thoroughly enjoy their set, picking possibly ‘Rant Part 2’ as my pick from their set. A loud cheer thanks them at the end of their set and the room starts to set up for the next act.

It’s quite easy to see where Bones Shake get their name from, pretty much as soon as they take to the stage, as a wall of noise cascades out onto what starts as a more meager showing before everyone quite quickly floods back into the basement room. An almost cacophonous wall of noise hits you from some heavy blues rock and your body rattles along to the thumping beats!

It’s easy to tell quite quickly that these guys have more than a few headline slots under their belt, as you see the whole crowd very quickly falling under their spell with head nods, foot stomps, and body rocking easily seen around the room. We even get a bit of the vocalist stumbling out into the audience, before theatrically collapsing onto the floor, almost reminiscent of Iggy Pop’s Isle of Wight performance of ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ – an act that has people briefly worried, before appreciating that it’s part of the spectacle. A great set, that goes down very well with what I would have previously seen as a slightly alien crowd to their sound.

What I thought was a wall of noise to Bones Shake increases to Motörhead levels, as my body feels almost blown apart from the instant Girls In Synthesis take to the stage. Discordant noise, with even more forboding than their latest opus, ‘Everything Else Is Distraction’ in a live setting, they’re an even more daunting prospect live than they come across at home.

Human metronomes across the board, coming across as full of malice and sinister, Dalek-style delivered vocals and a level of discomfort usually saved for the more extreme aspects of the noise spectrum, their uneasy listening style can be hard to adjust to, as is seen with a few of the audience leaving who were clearly here more for the supports. A random guy shuffles past me, coming from the upstairs bar, proclaiming that ‘my ears are bleeding, this is amazing’ and I, frankly, find it tough to disagree with that assessment.

They even start with the lead single from their sophomore, ‘Watch With Mother’, bringing their sound to a very early crescendo. They work their way through both of their releases after this, some ringing more bells for me than others, after the heavy listening done with their sophomore, as the noise level somehow increases as they work their way deep into the set. We get no encores, maybe due to the gig being delayed by an hour, but an explosive finish with ‘Enveloped’ makes sure that those that have stayed are going home happy. It may have been 2.5 years since my last gig, but the sheer energy on display all of tonight shows that needs to drastically change.

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