By DJ Astrocreep
That old train ride across to Manchester sees me take in the rather less delectable sounding Chat Pile, with Frontier in rather eager tow. The gruesome American twosome are out on tour, ripping both venues and their inhabitants new holes of various sorts and so it would have been rather rude not to get my arse over and enjoy their punishment.
Frontierer come to the stage and man, what a wall of noise they make from the off. Harsh, abrasive, everything the busy crowd want. Heads are quickly nodding, bodies moving, the entire venue vibrating from the sheer noise pouring out. The heavy distortion reverberates all around the room through all of our bodies, that instinctive need to just move in some way to the sheer decibels pouring out towards us.
Despite the very clear aim of discordance, the very fabric of their sound is quite intricately woven between the dual guitars and what are quite minimal drums in comparison to the blast beats you might expect for this kind of approach. As in your face, relentless, as it is, there is an absolute method to their madness. Not for the faint of heart, they deliver their harsh sound in a manner you cannot help but feel in the marrow of your bones. An excellent introduction to a very talented group of noise purveyors that doesn’t get a fraction of the applause that they deserve.
On come our erstwhile headline and while the noise is not as abrasive as our support, it is still as relentless. There are, at times, almost heavy post-punk tones to their sound, which is absolutely monstrous. The venue is absolutely roasting, the epitome of a sweatbox, with the capacity crowd absolutely lapping up everything thrown at us. The crowd are wild right through, with stage diving suited to the no barriers stage, and the pit spinning out of control a reach away from it. Their trait for hiding melody within the discordance is genuinely beautifully accomplished, the sign of a band who are in full reverie of their abilities. Even the topless and shoeless Raygun Busch on vocals seems to be enjoying himself, prowling the stage menacingly while the various instrumental parts blast out around him.
In terms of songs, we are tried to order to the very new, including the likes of ‘Funny Man’, which is as of yet unreleased. While the lyrical delivery is a lot more straight forward than some other noise acts, it loses none of its impact. Both the old and the new go down well, the crowd absolutely up for the punishment out eardrums are taking through the gig. Dallas Beltway as the penultimate song is just perfect, before hitting on to Garbage Man, where we get Luthor Manhole deciding to lie and sit down for the first bit – I mean, why the fuck not? They still absolutely smash it, before both he and Raygun just crash out on the stage.
An hour and five minutes is all we get from them, but man, are we treated well in that time. A superb performance.
- Photos by the author.
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