DFA1979

Having not been out for a few weeks and recovering from a serious bout of flu which flung me to within an inch of my life I venture down to Brixton with trepidation determined to stay on the orange juice for essential vitamins with possibly a medicinal whiskey chaser. Simon and Jules will be trundling along later so Pete and I meet outside the Academy and as we are a bit early I'm persuaded to go to the pub to find a source of vitamins. Pub packed so three minutes later we emerge from the offie with Red Stripe and Carling. Ah well, one will work as a pick me up I'm sure. We hang out on a street corner looking well hard staring down the flocks of young trendies and packs of hairies as they make their way to the gig. After scouring out our own little part of south west London will saunter over to the Academy to be welcomed inside without even a glance from the bouncers let alone a decent frisk. Maybe DFA fans aren't renowned for carrying with intent. So we're in and there aren't even security on the downstairs dance floor as is usual. Even though upstairs is open so I'm assuming it's not a sell out. Now I've never been a massive DFA fan as a little metallic for my tastes but I like the T that Ramsay has worn for years and although surprised that Simon's bought these four tickets I'm up for a bit of mayhem merchanting once in a while. We get to the floor the same moment as our enthusiastic support band take the stage...

Turbowolf sound in name as if they are a throwback to the sort of terrible heavy rock / metal band that Ramsay would drag me along to see in Birmingham rockers pubs (and I don't mean roots rockers) if Jon Bees was away for the weekend and there were no punk bands to see with  Olly. Well I had to humour the poor soul occasionally. And they never did turn out sounding like Hawkwind. Turbowolf start off with the charismatic (I'm being generous, let's say loud) singer thanking us all for coming to see them and how happy he is to be in such a wonderful venue. OK mate let's get on with it you've only got about 20 minutes to sell yourselves. They launch into some heavy riffs that would have gone down very nicely at Digbeth's Barrel Organ but I have to shake myself out of that vibe as we're in a different city different era. This isn't post punk earnest heavy metal but post dance pastiche metal. On the way in Pete and I were chatting about the name and whether it would be like Spinal Tap and we're on the right track. The sound at the back is truly appalling and I never knew the Academy could be so bad. We venture forward into the mix as they have a healthy number of interested punters given how early it is. Once I've blown away early experiences of sweaty pubs and unwashed bearded grebos spilling beer on me, and then their boyfriends threatening me for spilling their birds pint, I get drawn into the band. The sound is a lot better down here too. The band seem really into the music and soon I'm nodding away trying to resist the urge to go full out headbanging. If it wasn't for my cold, lack of hair and being worried about making myself dizzy as happens with old age I'd be down to some full on heads down no nonsense mindless boogie as Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias recommended. Regardless of my heavy rock prejudices (god, why am I at DFA?) I do like this band. They have an very energetic singer that I think is a cross between Joey Ramone and Mick Jagger. He dances around erratically but has a sort of too tall for his own skin slightly hunched up pose. Pete thinks he's more like Alice Cooper which is probably nearer the mark. Anyway he sings with vigour going off on strange noises and twiddles keyboard knobs building up a dance trance over metal sound. And he chats away between numbers which I always like. He can sing when he wants to too. Stage left we have our unreconstructed geetar hero who certainly can play and to be fair only does a minimal amount of noodling concentrating more on filling the aural soundscape with big rock riffs and posing a fair bit. Pounding the beat there's a great rock drummer who as so often happens isn't foremost in the audience's mind but he keeps a tight ship allowing the others to mess about doing their thing. And so to the bassist who is a great compliment to the drummer driving out a hard rhythm but also complementing the guitarist and singer's keyboard antics as she runs up and down the bass frets and striking rock chick poses looking good in her sparkly green dress. She also spends one song running backward and forward in the photographer's DMZ between punters and stage and starts us all hands above our heads clapping for a few intros. All in all a great band who give it all they've got and take us on a journey from post punk heavy rock through to post metal punk rock with a couple of detours to some really hard rock dance sort of a thing. They obviously don't want to leave the stage but have to and reluctantly call it a day exhorting us to get the album and go see them again. And the singer is made up in anticipation of seeing the headliners who the guitarist tries to get us all to admit that they are the best band in the world. If they are the best band tonight I'll be happy. We'll see.

Light shining off the guitarists, er, guitar

Turbowolf having to play under DFA's banners

Put your hands in the aaaiiiirrrr

I go to the bar and as usual in this place it's packed. Simon and Jules have arrived just in time for me to spend my money so I have another drink to get and struggle through the massing throng to wander around looking like a dick with my fingers dangling in 3 pints before I spot them all.

The lights dim and the heroic duo who are Death From Above 1979 take the stage. The drummer sat up a bit higher and the guitarist down on the stage floor where his can move about throwing rock poses and generally get active. The sound is really good by now and as we're just in front of the mixing desk it's loud and we can see the band (the sloping floor is a godsend) whilst not being squashed too much. The place obviously needs a good mass of human flesh to dampen the sound as it's a lot better than when the place of half empty. DFA start with some heavy near thrash numbers which is mainly how it continues. It's a really great sound mixing rock, head nodding heavy shoe gazing punk and with a bit of dance in the mix. I can't believe that the drummer can shout out the lyrics just for one song let alone a whole set. Amazing. We get a bit of chat from the drummer, about how the queen is their governor general or something. Get over it mate and tell us something interesting. You don't have to fund the waste of space. The guitarist just gets on with the serious business of rocking out and wow does he excel in that. I can see the influence on the current crop of Canadian punk bands. They do seem to like us here though and tell us that they love London and it feels like their second home. I'm sure they say that at all their gigs but more likely to believe in London than at some place like Stoke on Trent. Anyways all good things come to an end. At least temporarily. They leave the stage and Simon and Jules leave the building. Then back on for an encore which seems to be out of vogue at the moment but we're treated to a few more big hi energy guitar and drum blastings with a bit of dance especially thrown into the second from last, if I remember rightly. No second encore so Pete and I hang about until the throng through the door dies down and as we make our way outside walk past half of Turbowolf. We stop to say hello and I tell then they were great and edged DFA. May be so maybe not but the Wolfs did put on an impressive and varied display.

Overall a great night, thanks Simon, and a couple of thoroughly contented ageing punters stroll to Stockwell Station rather than face the hideousness of Brixton tube.

Death From Above classic design

Changing colour

Red light shift

Rocking out