Whip crack away
Whip Chord draw the smallest of the three rooms at Jabez Clegg tonight, which doesn’t help them as the lack of stage and usual poor sound are evident once again.
Once they get going however Whip Chord are high energy and big sounding with a distinct touch of Winnebago Deal about them. The songs are fast and chaotic, intense and loud and they are a breath of fresh air after some lack lustre sets from other bands here today. Singer and guitarist Nicholas Barry provides strong and solid vocals with screams in all the right places and they fit well with the hard edged pummelling rhythms supplied by Can Purcell and Chris O’Rourke on drums and bass respectively.
The performance is a bit shambolic to say the least, especially between songs but it seems to work and what they lack in tightness they make up for with shear exuberant energy. The tunes are not always easy to pick out with the guitar indecipherable behind a wall of noise for much of the set, whilst the bass lines are fat and distorted, which just adds to the general melee. It’s not pretty, it’s raw and ugly and it makes you want to go and break something and that alone makes Whipcord a force for good.