Late Of The Pier

May 08 2008 8:44 am,

4.0

Levi's Ones To Watch

Late Of The Pier / A Place To Bury Strangers / Collapsing Cities

London, Barfly

08/05/2008

The last time we saw Late Of The Pier, they were busy finishing off a gig at ULU with a mass stagedive. Things are no less thrillingly chaotic tonight, even if there is the nagging feeling that their spaceage histrionics are more suited to bigger stages than Barfly’s intimate sweatfest. It’s rare that a band so entertainingly bonkers would have a sonic backbone, but LOTP have a treasure chest of warped party-anthems at their disposal – minus a couple of proggy interludes, every song here feels like a chart-conquerer.

First though, there’s a duo of support bands to contend with – we had a breather when Leicester’s The Displacements were on and, erm, missed ‘em. First up, there’s the art-punk melodica of New Zealand quartet Collapsing Cities. The four-piece make indelible angular-pop explosions that sound like The Rapture amping-up Brendan Benson. New York’s A Place To Bury Strangers have no such acquaintance with melody though – the trio are hellbent on damaging eardrums with their industrial distorto-riffage, embarking on a Suicide-esque rampage until, where once the audience had a brain, they now have feedback.

Late Of The Pier are late coming on but they waste no time in nosediving into their electro-epic set - once the Spinal Tap-esque intro tape is finished, of course. The likes of ‘Space And The Woods’ and ‘Focker’ are thrashier, punkier relatives of their recorded counterparts, whilst ‘A Heartbeat. A Flicker. A Line’ sounds like Klaxons writing more than one good song. All of which probably mean their album will be amazing, they’ll sell a million, take over the country and a year from now we’ll all be bonkers. Can’t wait.

Niall Doherty

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