¡Forward, Russia! / Youth Movie Soundtrack Strategies

The Garage, London on Tue 18th Jul 2006

Prog-emo, Ouch! What a horrible idea - lengthy heartfelt diatribes strung out over monstrously heavy guitar noise that escalates in to decibel-defying ascensions of ear-splitting feedback. No thanks, I’d rather listen to my new Keane album.

Sure, Youth Movie Soundtrack Strategies may not be the band to fulfil the needs of mainstream tastes, but those eccentric enough to feel fulfilment from unpredictable and guttural scream-core couldn’t ask for more perfect purveyors.

As the venue shakes restlessly at the hands of their powerful, unpredictable clatter-thrash, the crowd cheer and mosh gleefully, despite the trillion-degree heat that’s stuck its dick in the air-con, trying to ruin it for everyone.

People mop up the blood trickling from their ears as the band leave the stage, and there’s a huge rush at the bar for tap water in the baking heat, before it’s ¡Forward, Russia!’s turn to perform.

For a band that haven’t changed their set list in the last year, ¡Forward, Russia! still manage to excite to the point of rabid mouth-frothing and hyperactive giggling, so while it’s no surprise when they open with the electro arpeggios of “Thirteen”, it in no way lessens its monolithic impact.

As their alt-punk-thash-disco unravels before the crowd’s best impression of tectonic convection, fans crowdsurf and invade the stage in the middle of every song.

"There’s two more radiators in here that we can ask them to switch on if you’re feeling a bit chilly," coos a sarcastic Whiskas before launching into the next track. For the large part, the band battle the heat, but as you see the sweat drip off their foreheads and their breathes deepen to a point of discomfort, maybe its best they end things early.

So whether its for this reason or because they simply didn’t have enough material to play, their short but effective set draws to a close at forty-five minutes, leaving a dripping crowd to ring out their t-shirts before catching the tube home.

article by: Alex Hoban

published: 20/07/2006 10:42



FUTURE GIGS


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