Japandroids, Epic Dalston, gig review: Blood-and-guts anthems
The latest gig in the wild Fluffer Pit Parties series sees the Vancouver duo take to an intense, 360-degree stage
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Your support makes all the difference.“I didn’t really notice it at soundcheck but this place has a ‘Two men enter. One man leaves’ vibe to it,” drummer David Prowse says with a sheepish grin. “It’s very Jean-Claude Van Damme.”
We’re in an east London events hall, bathed in moody lighting and lingering smoke, with a chandelier hanging from the ceiling and a square stage slap bang in the middle – we’d be lying if we said there wasn’t a slight cage-fight-in-a-bingo-hall feel to it. The gig is the latest in a series of so-called Pit Parties, run by the London-based label Fluffer Records. Inspiration comes from the punk shows of old – floor gigs in unorthodox venues, with the crowd surrounding the band on all sides – and with roots in do-it-yourself performances, Japandroids seem like natural incumbents.
The Canadian outfit thrive on immediacy, delivering propulsive, instantly loveable guitar-rock anthems, with a massiveness of sound that belies their two-man line-up. The band’s first two albums, Post-Nothing and Celebration Rock are soundtracks for all the most embraceable of clichés: the blissfully aimless road trips, the drunken exploits, the post-post-break-up euphoria, and all the rest.
After releasing Celebration Rock in in 2012, they stormed through a 22-month tour that covered the globe, and when you see the intensity they play with tonight – a wild energy that’s somewhere between punch-the-sky and punch-through-a-window – you can understand why they took three years off afterwards.
It wasn’t all relaxation, though. During that down period they wrote the latest album, Near to the Wild Heart of Life, which edged away from the lo-fi garage rock aesthetic and towards a more polished studio style. That said, tonight is blood-and-guts Japandroids. Apart from the electronic buzz that pervades “Arc Of Bar”, one a few songs off the Wild Heart release played here, tonight it’s all about hulking, muddy guitar tones and hurtling drum beats.
Singer and guitarist Brian King seems drenched in sweat from the off, necking shots of liquor in between songs before cutting out the middle man and just swigging from the bottle. On “Younger Us”, each yelled syllable is undeniably heartfelt, with Prowse singing along to pretty much every word. And as they storm though older favourites, such as the hooky “Wet Hair” or the frenetic “Young Hearts Spark Fire”, the crowd area to the right of King becomes the designated moshing zone. “I would never, ever normally say this because I’m from the west coast, but the east coast is giving me good vibes right now,” he smiles.
“The House That Heaven Built” is a stadium-sized finale. The trademarked Japandroids Woah-oh-oh Group Vocals are out in force, as the furiously strummed guitar rockets away, and the drums become a torrent of cymbals and snares. It's Japandroids at their most Japandroidsy, and it's brilliant.
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