Bea Lynx
Opening the night is five piece As Living Arrows (FKA Dead Bird). As the room starts to slowly fill up, the band tries to warm up the audience with something that can only be described as quintessential screamo. The three guitars build the dynamics almost in a surgical way, you can tell these guys take pride in their songwriting and precision. Despite their pristine sound, the singer and rhythmic guitarist seldom burst into some chaotic vocals reminiscent of Loma Prieta style of build-ups. These moments managed to catch the attention of the audience who has been quiet so far and by the end of the set we can witness some first moshing activity. As Living Arrows are a band for the fans who also enjoy moments of quiet, with atmospheric and delicate guitar sounds, a perfect opener for the next two acts who are soon going to bring up the level of intensity.
Chalk Hands enter the stage bringing a truly uplifting energy since the very beginning. You can tell this four-piece from Brighton have been having a blast so far touring the UK with Frail Body and they can transmit it instantly to the crowd. The venue is full by now and it’s captivated by Chalk Hands who brought their fair share of fans to the room. They all have a great chemistry among them, especially between the two guitarists who play in perfect harmony and both showcase outstanding vocals too. Drumming is tight and the bass player and vocalist in the front is great at engaging with the crowd. It is maybe the crisp sound of the bass played with a pick or just the band’s general uplifting presence, but one can’t help but notice that Chalk Hands bring a more post-hardcore approach to screamo, reminding me of many American bands like Touché Amoré.
As any respectful screamo band, they also performed a track in a different language, French in this case, which can be seen as a great homage to all early 2000’s Euro emo and screamo artists who influenced so many in this genre. Also, something worth noticing, the sound tonight has been great so far and the band acknowledges it and thanks the sound staff on stage. Truly, what a great band of talented, nice and humble people; they’re going to go very far.
The Illinois headliner Frail Body brings the night to its climax announcing they are going to play their whole new album Artificial Bouquet. This trio sounds absolutely huge, establishing themselves with other bands in the same scene, such as Gillian Carter and Birds in Row, proving that three people are more than enough if you know how to master your music live. The guitarist and singer Lowel Shaffer has his sound split into two amps and works magic with his pedal board to build layers and atmosphere with just one guitar, and let’s not forget about his outstanding vocals. On the other side of the stage, bass player Nic Kuczynski, is playing almost fully clean, if not for one distortion pedal, and displays mindblowing skills with his instrument. But what really brings this band to another level of noise is the blasty drums by Nicholas Clemenson, transforming the band into a chaotic display of greatness, ethereal and tortuous at the same time.
The crowd at this point is completely captured, the audience is divided into a few frantic moshers in the front and a lot of mesmerized people in the back who are just absorbing all the frequencies and feeding their soul with their music. ‘Devotion’ is a stand out in the middle of the setlist. This recent single is a true masterpiece of music writing, a mix of mystical chaos with mellow interludes reminiscent of classic screamo bands like Raein. The band then proceeds to play all the tracks in a perfectly smooth sequence. Guitar loops and layers are used as a medium to connect the songs and keep the momentum going right up to the end. This midwestern screamo band knows how to command a stage and the emotions that are gifted to the audience are very real.
Nothing can beat the “feels” of a crowd of emo listeners; even though we’re probably all shy people who are there to enjoy music by ourselves, there is just something in the air that unites us all. At the end, the band decides to play an encore with ‘Your death makes me wish heaven was real” from their first LP A Brief Memoriam which gets an overjoyed reaction by the front crowd who seemed to have just been waiting for it. It makes you wonder if maybe it would have been a better choice to play more of the old tracks for the UK audience, who’s seeing the trio in their country for the first time. Nevertheless, Frail Body, with their recent album, are really proving that they deserve a space among the best modern screamo and post-hardcore bands that come out of Deathwish and they are phenomenal to see live.