A Place To Bury Strangers - Winter Tour 2008
Brooklyn trio, A Place To Bury Strangers, wrapped up their short tour of the UK by supporting MGMT and playing far too few headline gigs including a sold out show at ICA in the capital. I guess we have to get the boring part out of the way first; no they were not as loud as when Bullet For My Valentine played there.
Despite all the hype about how loud A Place To Bury Strangers are, the one thing that does seem to get ignored is just how good they are. Starting off with 'Gimmie Acid' it was clear that this was going to be a great night. The wailing noise of Oliver Ackermann's guitar sent those there nodding heads in appreciation. Coupled with an elaborate lighting screen behind Jay Space's drums, it led to an extremely atmospheric gig.
Both Oliver Ackermann and bassist Jono Mofo, who was wearing a Cardiff City Soul Crew 1982 top, the city where he was originally from, both played as if their lives depended on it. The numerous pedals that both Oliver and Jono played with is always astounding and at times Jono appeared to be playing a guitar rather than bass such is his ability, people that had come out to see what the fuss was about no doubt left after the gig happy. We here have already praised this bands ability to play whilst reviewing their debut album and live they fail to disappoint from start to finish. Even the guitarist, Dean Tzenos from Canadian band Ten Kens who supported admirably along side the UK's Sian Alice Group, was seen dancing during the gig.
For those unfortunate enough not to have seen A Place To Bury Strangers live, you will have missed the fantastic end to each of their sets. We here at R13 commented on the destruction that guitarist Oliver hands out to what ever guitar he happens to be playing. We first saw him destroy his white guitar during SXSW only to see it fully resurrected the next time. Today it was the turn of Oliver's red guitar to get destroyed during the penultimate song, which probably had the best, yet simplest, lighting set up for one song and a simple strobe light on the edge of the stage. This added the perfect chaotic feel to the track and really captured the essence of what this band is about, not any showmanship but pure and simple great live music.
It seems they are heading back here early next year, if you failed to catch them this time then you are lucky enough to have another chance!