Live Review: Chat Pile, meth. and Modern Technology | The Fleece, Bristol | 26/06/2024
Oklahoma City’s bleakest sludge wranglers Chat Pile are back for a sold out show in Bristol ahead of their appearance at this year’s Outbreak festival. Joined by anxiety inducing experimental Chicago outfit meth. and powerfully noisy London duo Modern Technology for one of the most punishing shows of the year.
Modern Technology
Despite the beaming sunshine and seemingly busy street lined with revellers outside, a strong portion of tonight’s sold out audience has arrived early; whether to secure a spot for tonight’s headliners or to sink a few extra cold pints is left unclear as the polite chatter is defiantly thrown out the window as Modern Technology unleash their cacophonous brand of weighty noise rock. The London based duo make for the perfect openers for tonight, with heaps of head nodding grooves, manipulated feedback, pulverising drones and walls of noise.
The band make a strong impression from the opening moments that carry through the thirty minute set. There are some minor sound issues, the rack toms are a little crispy with distortion as drummer Owen Gildersleeve absolutely batters them, there is the occasional shriek of feedback as vocalist/bassist Chris Clarke delivers his intense sermons over the instrumentals. In all honesty though, if anything, this just further adds to the bands devastating sonic presentation. Showing off cuts from their latest release Conditions of Worth, its hard to comprehend that a two piece can be as loud and as violent as Modern Technology manage to present themselves, leaving the audience stunned in the best way possible.
Photo Credit: Tom Bruce
meth.
Chicago’s meth. have to be seen to be believed. Touring the EU for the first time to promote their devastating and emotionally devastating new album SHAME, their brief discography is filled with confrontational intensity. Playing Barbara Steisand’s rendition of ‘Send In The Clowns’ in full as a walkout theme sets a strange and unexpected atmosphere, but perfectly fits in step with the bands self-reflective and internally tortured lyricism. meth. take to the stage and immediately juxtapose the soft, soulful vibe established with their claustrophobic and somewhat terrifying sonic assault.
Opening with ‘Compulsion’, frontman Seb Alvarez unleashes a piercing and pained shriek for damn near 30 seconds straight as the dissonant punishment is unleashed on the mostly unsuspecting audience. The low-end rumbles of the dissonant breakdowns are crushing, sounds that would give an erupting volcano a sense of inadequacy. Falling straight into the frantic bursts of blast beats and shredding from ‘Bliss’ throws the crowd through a loop with its swift change of pace before the band return to their nihilistic, earth pummelling sludge.
The band show off some older material in the form of ‘Swallowed Conscience’ from debut Mother Of Red Light, a (somehow) much more intense math-core tinged experience of violent polyrhythms and dissonant guitar work. For the whole set Alvarez is like a man possessed, clinging to the venues iconic floor to celling poles, disappearing into a heap on the floor of the stage and crawling around behind the amps. For ‘Doubt’, their final song, he dives into the crowd, creating space and collapsing on the floor as he starts to twitch and convulse as he gurgles and cries his painfully self-tormented lyrics. It is truly a set to behold, leaving the entire venues jaws slack with minds blown as meth. prove that good things truly do come to those who wait.
Photo Credit: Tom Bruce
Chat Pile
In contrast with meth., there is a significant difference in energy as Chat Pile casually stroll out onto the stage to a heroes welcome. Frontman Raygun Busch immediately starts bantering with the crowd, starting as they mean to go on with plenty of friendly chatter before throwing the atmosphere a curveball and launching straight into ‘Grimace_Smoking_Weed.Jpeg’, one of the most intense songs in the bands back pocket to start tonight’s set. They don’t quite play the track in full as it seamlessly morphs into “Face”, the opening track of their debut EP This Dungeon Earth.
Chat Pile are one of those bands that don’t typically stick to a setlist, playing whatever they’re feeling on the night and switching things up show to show. Despite the intense nature and raw outlook of their music and lyrical storytelling, their live energy is very loose and almost playful. The choppy dystopian riffs of ‘Why’ adds to the building sense of danger in the centre of the crowd, the manic screams echoed back to Busch from the audience. Further dwelling in the bands earlier EP’s, the double helping of the hypnotic and demonic ‘Rat Boy’ into the furious blasts and manic ramblings of ‘Davis’ triggers the first true pits of the night, beers are flying and bodies being thrown around at full force.
Busch is taking regular breaks between tracks to talk movies, movies and more movies. Occasionally speaking on how nice it was to explore the city and country, joking with the crowd often then going deeper into cinematic pondering once again. The band show off some unreleased material, supposedly titled ‘I Am Dog’ that gives the impression that the follow up to God’s Country will continue down the path of horrid atmospheres and uncomfortable storytelling. ‘Slaughterhouse’ nearly brings the roof down as the crowd loses their minds, everyone’s head rings as they dream about hammers and grease. The ferocious flames that is the bands pacing is further stoked with the musings of capitalistic hellscapes on ‘Tropical Beaches, Inc’ and there is a palpable sense of danger as the crowd becomes more unhinged.
Another new cut; the dissonant, syncopated and frighteningly tense ‘Funny Man’, has been in regular rotation in Chat Pile’s live sets for a year or so and gets a lot of love from the bands diehards. ‘Pamela’ is haunting in its delivery but gives a much needed reprieve from the violence bubbling in the pits. Closing the set with the beautifully uncomfortable pairing of ‘Crawlspace’ and ‘Dallas Beltway’, despite the tempered ending the crowd don’t let up with their wholehearted embrace of the bands bleak outlook and sonic explorations, begging for more as the set comes to a close. An very swift and unplanned encore of the fan favourite ‘Rainbow Meat’ sends everyone in the venue home happy, manically crying “SEND MY BODY TO ARBYS” louder than the PA can possibly match. Chat Pile are incomparable and hard to summarise as a live force, almost like a psychedelic experience. Simultaneously presenting themselves as calm and unhinged, putting on one hell of a performance for their hungry audience and leaving them desperate for one more taste.
Photo Credit: Tom Bruce
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Chat Pile, #
Doom, #
drone, #
Experimental, #
Human Worth, #
meth., #
Modern Technology, #
Noise Rock, #
Prosthetic Records, #
Sludge, #
The Fleece, #
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