Live review October 29 @ The Crowbar, Brisbane
The much-lauded saviours of northern thrash, Pulled Apart By Horses make their first appearance in Brisbane since last year’s Soundwave festival last night at and Tone Deaf was there to watch it all unfold.
Brisbanites, DIY punks Release The Hounds sets tonight’s lineup a fairly high standard first up with a deafening set of dirty, harsh punk-rock. Vocalist, Liam tells us they’ve had tracks banned by a certain radio station after a listener called in to complain their lyrics were “too violent” so now they write songs mostly concerning Toadie from Neighbours. That ought to shut the haters up!
Yellowcatredcat claim on their Unearthed page that they “make music to drink booze and punch your friend in the face to”. Well, there’s no arguing with that as the local two-piece, dressed in white polos and tennis shorts, unleash a set of aggressive indie punk. Lanky guitarist and vocalist Isaac Rogers can hardly stand still long enough to scream down the mic as he bounds erratically around the stage ripping out riff after cutting riff as the beers flow and the venue begins to fill.
A few days ago they played to thousands of punters in the theatre at Sheffield’s O2 Academy in the UK with The Cribs, but tonight the surroundings are a little different. They’re playing downstairs to around 100 fans at The Crowbar on Brunswick Street with low ceilings and sticky floors. It’s a venue with a character perfectly suited to the band and guitarist James Brown will declare the place “fucking awesome” before the hour is out.
Pulled Apart By Horses are generally ludicrous. The songs names are inane and the subject matter is often dubious but the music is astoundingly technical and the band is tight and locked in with one another and it’s all delivered with such sincerity and passion that from the opening riff of ‘Hot Squash’ to the final flourish of the lyrically brief but rousing ‘High Five Swan Dive Nose Dive’ you could be forgiven for believing every mangled word.
The stage is a mess of hair as the lads from Yorkshire head-bang their way through tracks spanning all three of their albums with a heavy dose of 2014’s Blood. Offering more mature, accessible and less extreme takes, Blood tracks like ‘Medium Rare’ and ‘Lizard Baby’ (reportedly about the British royals and their reptilian ancestry) provide punctuation between the more schizophrenic cuts from Tough Love and their self-titled debut.
‘I Punched A Lion In The Throat’ is frantic, intense and shows off exceptional musicianship as the band move effortlessly between time signatures, swapping guitar octaves, vocal harmonies and the occasional scrambled solo in the process. Similarly ‘V.E.N.O.M.’ is a stand out with its punchy chorus eliciting an unexpected and rare singalong moment.
[include_post id=”461635″] Surprisingly, toward the end of the short set the band betray their roots, pulling out a flawless version of Iggy and The Stooges’ ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ followed by ‘High Five Swan Dive Nose Dive’ with its technical verses and huge choruses amid pulverising screams that bring the set to a deafening, if early, close.
Calls for their return to play ‘Back To The Fuck Yeah’ go unheeded by the jet-lagged lads from Yorkshire and those who have to work in the morning quickly down their beers before disappearing up the stairs and back into the busy, seedy streets of Fortitude Valley.
Photos: Tony Proudfoot, taken at Ding Dong Lounge Melbourne
