Misery Signals At Camden Underworld
October 7th, 2009 by AdamWisconsin 6-piece Misery Signals have towed an entourage of bright young hardcore hopefuls into town at the end of a six-week tour for an evening of noise and, quite possibly, some shouting.
A quick bit of pre-gig research reveals that Break The Sky are apparently reforming just for one special appearance, which if it’s true would beg the question… why? The place of an opening act is to get some stage experience, develop as a band and show a few moments of promise, which these guys occasionally do in a set laden with screamo mediocrity. The question is, who decided that this apparently defunct band were that vital to this lineup that they should reform for one night over a more active one?
Bringing arguably one of the most confusing live performances this stage has ever witnessed are New Jersey locals The Number 12 Looks Like You. From an uninspiring opener the set spirals into a world of the bizarre. Vocalist Jase is a complete anomaly, elements of Davey Havok/Brian Molko effeminate whininess twinned with cat-like screams and guttural roars. Musically it veers between Dillinger Escape Plan and jazz fusion – a comparison with early Incubus would be lazy, but Between The Buried And Me clearly had an influence. The Acapulco-style interludes are well performed and entertaining, but the joke possibly wears thin on a crowd pumped on beer for a heavier sound. One thing that can’t be denied – they do draw all eyes to the stage.
The arrival of English boys Your Demise finally provokes the previously stoic audience into action, and violent action at that. Their influences are clear to see from the off and I mean no insult in saying that they’re never going to be break any ground musically: their sound is lifted straight from the NY hardcore scene with a touch of Hatebreed and, briefly, Pantera into the mix. But they’re a blunt instrument and provide exactly the level of brute force that the night needs – the combination of heaving riffs and punkish rabble-rousing incites a riot that engulfs most of the floor. The crowd breaks over the low Underworld stage like a crashing wave, stage divers and mic-grabbers at all angles. A promising display for a young UK band.
After what seems like an age of sound-checking, Misery Signals take to the stage. What’s immediately apparent is how technically proficient they are – the real pull of their most recent album Controller, and what marks them out as a real talent to watch over some similar bands, is their depth of sound from hoarse brutality to surprisingly tender, melodic undercurrent all within the same moment. Live on stage they bring the full range, songs such as Coma and A Certain Death pitch perfect. At his heaviest vocalist Karl’s aural onslaught and stage presence is one to match the best hardcore sounds out there. Where the crowd had previously been a crashing wave the stage now becomes a churning whirlpool, the line between crowd and band impossible to spot in a sea of flailing legs and arms. The band seem genuinely surprised at the immediate and unanimous requests for an encore but they shouldn’t – if their sound carries on growing in this direction there’s going to be a lot more to come, and on bigger stages than this.
