Gareth Sweet
Copywriter
The problem with being fashionably late to gigs is that occasionally you’ll miss out on seeing some fucking cool shit. And when Damn Terran played at Ding Dong on Saturday night, a lot of people missed out. Despite a crowd that consisted of little more than two drunk dudes and a photographer, these guys where giving it fucking hell. Playing like they hated their instruments, they pounded out a set of loud, discordant post punk that sounded like the end of the world. Check them out.
Next on were the Terrordactyls, collectively they definitely had the best hair of the night. Playing sample and loop heavy electro-screech it’s pretty clear these guys have been listening to a lot of Crystal Castles lately.
Unfortunately, despite all the screaming, writhing and goon bag spraying, the slavish attention to up-to-the-millisecond coolness seemed a little too self conscious and the spontaneity a little too contrived. But good luck to them I say.
Ding Dongs was packed by the time the Reptiles exploded onto the stage in a squalling storm of feedback and fuck you attitude. All greasy hair and zombie stares, from the first chord these guys pushed the basement button on the elevator to hell.
People were crowding close up against the stage as fan boys sang along and fan girls spasmed and writhed in front of the singer. Listening to these guys is like being drowned in a massive voodoo wall of sound. The single ‘Haunted House’ got the biggest response of the night but there’s not one dud track in their set. Score one for Satan.
Resisting the urge to give too much, the Reptiles left the stage as abruptly as they arrived, leaving the crowd still hungry but happy. If these guys didn’t get laid after a performance like that, rock and roll is definitely dead.
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