Death From Above 1979

O2 ABC, Glasgow

Jonathan Geddes

WHEN this duo visited Glasgow last October, the gig was performed in sweltering conditions at a sold-out Garage. This time around the setting was rather cooler and airier, but the sheer force and energy of the band’s songs remained intact.

If their music is at its best in a cramped area, it does not lose much when transferred to bigger surroundings. Right from the initial barrage of Turn It Out, complete with its horror movie-style opening, the sound was pummelling, both from drummer/vocalist Sebastian Grainger and bassist Jesse F Keeler, though not muddy.

Grainger, dressed in an outfit that looked like he had just been doing a spot of painting and decorating, said little all night, for this is the sort of band that really does focus on the music being delivered as forcefully as possible. He did sarcastically compare himself to support act Turbowolf, who had a singer who strutted and bantered away, but such chat would only have interrupted the flow of the headliners.

Both their albums were well represented but, in truth, there are not too many stylistic differences. The trick is sounding simple yet complex, and few bands can match the two-piece’s finest moments – Cheap Talk’s unrelenting fury, the stabbing keyboards of Go Home, Get Down and the dance floor debauchery of White Is Red, their closest attempt at a pop song.

Although it’s a well Death From Above 1979 return to often, arguably eschewing anything too far away from it, there is still something rousing about brute noise being deployed so skilfully and so rapidly, as on the squeal of Gemini and a deafening The Physical World.