Review:
'Computers, The'
'The Duchess, York, 9th May 2011'
- Genre: 'Punk/New Wave'
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Our Rating:
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The Hangnails set the mood perfectly. Not because they’re remotely akin to the headliners musically, but because they’re all about full-throttle, balls-out rock action. The blues-based grunge duo crank out one helluva racket – and forget the White Stripes comparisons: these guys can really play. It’s a pity that they’re followed by Drowned in Flames, who churn out the kind of generic metallic hard rock that’s been done to death for the last, what, fifteen to twenty years.
Still, we’re here for The Computers, and whatever misgivings I might have had about their debut album, their live show hasn’t been affected by the rather sluggish tendencies of the recorded material. If anything, they’re even more supercharged than ever before. They don’t just hit the stage running, but blast it and the rest of the venue with a blitzkrieg of screamed profanities, machine-gun drums, roaring guitars and a half pint of spit.
It doesn’t take long before Alex has decamped from the stage and has set up the mic stand in the middle of the audience, making occasional forays around the venue with his guitar and herding onlookers – myself included – close to the centre. Live, The Computers only have one speed: fucking fast, and it’s pedal to the metal all the way. It’s not subtle. It’s not supposed to be. This is punk rock the way it’s supposed to be: hard, loud, fast and visceral, knowingly dumb and completely in your face. It doesn’t matter what songs are on the set-list: they all receive the same treatment as the jangly niceties of ‘Group Identity’ are replaced by a blizzard of power chords blasted out at breakneck pace and there’s no let up during the entire set as they pack an hour’s worth of material into 40 minutes or so. ‘Teenage Tourettes Camp’ is a sonic riot, but then everything blurs together in a ferocious Daz-white whirlwind. Yep, The Computers know how to put on a show and crank not only the volume but also the entertainment to eleven.
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There’s no encore, which means I’ll just have to go and see them next time.
The Computers on MySpace
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author: Christopher Nosnibor
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The Hangnails
The Computers
The Computers
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