No Age / Health at the Scala

No Age / Health at the Scala

12 August, 2008
by: Domzig

Upset the Rhythm must be the most 'on it' promoters working in London. Whilst most of us have just stumbled across LA's new musical renaissance, these guys have not only booked it, they’ve sorted it out with visas and are shipping it over to the UK wholesale.

Tonight’s show at the Scala proves the point completely, featuring two of the scenes golden boys: experimental noiseniks Health and art rock influenced hardcore revivalists No Age. Judging by the queue at the bar, this one is going to be big.

With Dan Deacon stuck in Portugal after having his travel documents nicked, it's left to Lovvers to start proceedings, which they do in typically bone-crunching style. It's a bit of a blink and you’ll miss it set, but one that has most of the crowd nodding in approval.

Next up are Health, who  may be a contender for one of the best bands of the year after tonight. Peddling a sound that's not unlike Portishead playing Pantera songs in a ghost train, they showcase an uncanny ability to shift effortlessly from cathartic drone rock, to post rock and over to ear shredding screamo at will. Seriously, they should change their name to Shock and Awe.

I'm fearing the worse by the time No Age appear on stage 15 minutes later; no one could follow the pummelling we’ve all received from Health right? But after a shaky start Dean Spunt and Randy Randall rip into a set of crowd-pleasing singalong hardcore.

Cue half an hour of utter craziness. What starts with a long haired kid jumping on stage and dancing like Animal from The Muppets, quickly turns into a series of full blown stage invasions where hordes of sweaty kids with smiles of wonder slapped all over their faces jumping over the band, crew and security in scnes of complete pandomonium. At one point a particularly inebriated mosher takes out Randall’s guitar, but the band just shrugs this off with a laugh as the drums thunder on.

It all ends with a riotous cover of The Urinals ‘Male Masturbation’ that goes down like a naked person at a house party. I suppose that's the point really, I’ve seen a lot of bands do this party hardcore thing over the years, but like Japanther, No Age have this amazing ability to make it really, really fun to the point that you can't help but get involved. In this world of pouting miserablists that is never a bad thing.

No Age has a record called 'Nouns' out on Sub Pop at the moment, you can read about it on our blog. Click here to check out more goings on at the Scala.


Check out all London Live Music
Check out all Live punk & hardcore
Check out all London Events

Domzig