A quick impromptu late night stop at the Kings Cross Hotel tonight got me climbing stairs to see what was going on. Waiting for me just below the rooftop was a post punk feast to start off the Easter holidays featuring DEN, Concrete Lawn and Perspex.
Arriving fashionably late, I missed the support acts, but was able to catch DEN in full flight. A four piece from Sydney with drum, bass, guitar/vocals and keys/electro noises.
As soon as I walked in the door the senses were assaulted with driving electro, industrial, thumping metal rhythm; a sound that would easily feel at home in a Berlin bunker nightclub.
There was a healthy dose of white noise guitar in each offering from the dark stage, with an underlying thrashing bass and drums overlain with some heroic synth/keys that was almost Gary Newman-esque. The healthy dose of doom metal atmosphere sitting low over the crowd in the room, like a fog, was ripped by spoken word vocals that were more like punctuation marks, spitting out lots of brooding pent up angst.
Check out DEN’s latest recorded offering “Deep Cell” for yourself here; although the live show is worth the effort for a complete sensory immersion – its better than a float tank session to soothe those jangled nerves.
Was there some Brown Noting going on? Sheer volume alone wasn’t going to do it, although these guys gave it a pretty good shot.
