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Live Reviews Music

Cerebral Ballzy Live at The Old Blue Last

Cerebral_Ballzy_Live_at_The_Old_Blue_LastCerebral Ballzy / Lower / Chain of Flowers
Old Blue Last
Tuesday 20th August 2013

I have never listened to Chain of Flowers before in my life and that is a sad thing. If you favour the darker side of indie music then you must check this lot out at once. Their set is a half hour of tight, wall of sound energy, fronted by vocalist Joshua Smith whirling about the stage freaking out like Ian Curtis as he snarls his dark sincere lyrics. Chain of Flowers match punk with indie and it sounds great.

All the way from Copenhagen, Lower keep the bar high with their bass riff driven, post-punk noise. But what I really like about this four piece is that they create something believable. Like Chain of Flowers before them, the way in which their set is delivered and performed feels honest and true, no one’s posing here this evening, just passionate people doing what they’re passionate about. It’s evident the rest of the audience feel the same about this bunch as appreciation is shown in volumes, and Lower feed off of that.

Cerebral Ballzy bring the noise for their headline slot, bashing through short thrash stints one after the other, doing what they do best. Although not my band of choice for a playlist, they are tremendously fun live. The crowd show their approval, regularly tossing each other through the air and across the room. It’s not all just business as usual though, new track ‘Another Day’, produced by Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio, sees Ballzy stepping in a slightly different direction. Adopting more of a ‘song writer’ approach to this B side, Ballzy use conventional structure as opposed to the pure, face melting outbursts exhibited on their 2011 self-titled debut. Not that this new angle is a bad one, they stay true to the punk cred they’ve earned and this track goes down a storm tonight with the rest of their high speed thrash. This is only the first of a two night residency at the Old Blue, and I’m very tempted to go down again tonight.

Dave Palmer