Liars @ 9:30 Club
When the lead singer of a band comes into a show recovering from both a back injury and some alien death virus, this doesn't bode well for a good performance. When the aforementioned band, California's Liars shows up on the night of a heinously awful fall-causing ice storm, that doesn't bode well for a large audience. Suffice to say, Tuesday night's show was not the cult-building stuff of legend. There was no equipment climbing, no odd wardrobe choices, and no true freakouts. So Liars had to make do with what they had: an intensity that defies injury, a room full of truly dedicated fans and a setlist full of noisy tinny percussion and primal screams that could inspire blind rage (or at least perpetual fist pumping) from your average mild-mannered cubicle neighbor.
Liars shows are not friendly territory for anyone who considers themselves a fan of the melody. Lead singer Angus Andrews doesn't so much sing as yell with rhythm, punctuating his lyrics with primal screams and yelps. Not that this matters much since, particularly in a live setting, the vocals are somewhat obscured by the massive amounts of reverb and synth and the metallic sounding drums of Julian Gross. Even at their most accessible, this wasn't a sing-a-long provoking set.
Photo by Katherine Gaines
Andrews' condition has apparently improved over the course of the tour. Besides the lack of projectile vomiting, Angus has moved from sitting in comfy chairs to sitting on a stool. Still, whenever possible, he extricated himself from the seat, moving about with wild erratic contortions making the audience speculate if the grimace on his face was one of intensity or of pain. He still had the room's total attention early on with the percussion-heavy "Houseclouds" a track from last year's self-titled album as he chanted "I won't be gone," proving that he's arresting beyond his mobility. When he talked between songs he even seemed downright cheerful.
Although songs from former albums like Drum's Not Dead made cameo appearances, the tracks from their Liars release took center stage. Perhaps the most awww-inducing moment of the night came from Gross's dedication of "Pure Unevil" to his girlfriend Julia, assuring her that she's not a bad person. They followed this up with their single, "Plaster Casts of Everything" which was the closest they got that night to starting up a mosh pit.
Opener No Age, also from California, clearly weren't used to the icy weather. They showed up on stage forty-five minutes late, saying that they almost died on the way down to the 9:30 Club. So they seemed to have some fun with their set, dedicating a song to Daniel, an audience member who had flipped them the bird during the previous number. This band is one worth remembering, if for no other reason, because they're putting out another album full of these two-minute distortion addled punk numbers this May on Dischord.
Anyone who missed Liars' set shouldn't fear that they missed an early contender for show of the year. At their best, they might have held that title, but even in their compromised state, their energy puts most bands to shame and at the very least, gave the people inside the 9:30 Club a great distraction from the slippery sidewalks outside.