Holy Fuck / ¡Forward Russia! @ Mercury Lounge



Can you dance to distorted experimental 8-bit melodies? YES. Canada’s Holy Fuck combines experimental electronic loops distorted over live drums and guitar. They do NOT use computers or midi sequencing devices and everything is created live in a very chaotic setting. The electronic portion of the sound stems from 2 members surrounded with an abundance of old synthesizers and arrays of pedals. There even was some 35mm film editing contraption that was converted to produce crazy analog sounds. The music is a collection of scattered glitches and beats somehow held together to created melodies that got everybody dancing and yelling “Holy Fuck” throughout the entire set. In the end it sounded like if Einstürzende Neubauten took Nintendo games systems and threw them into a blender. I was completely blown away by their IDM rock n’ roll, dancing wildly as I was no longer in control of my body and wanting to hit my head repeatedly against the wall .

Songs titles and lyrics based of numbers? ¡Forward Russia! formed in 2004 in the U.K. and has been getting a ton of buzz considering they were everywhere at SXSW. It was their first time in NY and they played to a very eager NY audience. The music was intense and emotional involving screaming nonsensical lyrics over pounding beats coming from Katie, their incredible drummer. The lead singer was completely spastic onstage getting entangled with the microphone cord to the point of strangulation. The band created these intense walls of noise to just be destroyed by the wailing voice of Tom as he frantically jumped across the stage. The last song was a culmination of energy and Tom jumped into the crowd nearly knocking me over in the front row. I was captivated by the sound of hardcore music combined with experimental melodies. This band is drop-kicking the stagnant music of ’06 and just got signed to Mute records so expect your eardrums to reverberate some more in the future. These guys kept partying at the after concert party despite having to get on a plane at 9AM to kick ass in San Francisco. An incredible evening.

I didn’t take any pictures because EVERYONE was taking a ton of pictures with their damn flash. Soon concerts will be ruined by all these stupid amateur photographer blogger peoples like me. Why do you have to take over 200 pictures in one set???

Here’s a round up of the best shots.
source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/freekorps/

Links:
www.holyfuckmusic.com/
www.forwardrussia.com/
Rough mashing of the audio of ¡Forward, Russia! “Twelve” with the Sesame Street Pinball Video.