Cardiff-formed post-hardcore band, mclusky, hit Bristol in May as part of their Strangers Are Just Friends We Haven’t Monetised Yet tour, rocking the stage at Electric, the venue formerly named SWX. The three-piece, consisting of founding member, vocalist and guitarist Andy Falkous (Falco), drummer Jack Egglestone and Damien Sayell on bass, constitute the most recent incarnation of the band. The band tore through twenty songs of utter carnage, a setlist that spanned their twenty-three-year wide discography, with a healthy sprinkling of tracks from their latest album the world is still here and so are we.
The band opened with Mclusky Do Dallas’s ‘Fuck This Band’, a softer number built from a meandering bassline that – despite its sense of warm invitation – promises and forebodes something far more imposing. The opener provides a sense of tension that is built upon the shared knowledge of the impending musical baptism of fire that is unleashed in blistering brilliance through ‘Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues’, an anthem that is as sonically brash and brazen as its aptly named title. The audience is launched into a maelstrom of noise as concert goers reciprocate by hurling themselves into each other in mosh pits that can only be likened to a fight club set to the soundtrack of a migraine. Pure, primal animalistic urges are untethered, with the band and audience morphing into two complementary forces that feed each other’s fire.
The momentum carried through for almost the entirety of the set. ‘Without Msg I Am Nothing’ provides the perfect follow up, fuelling the chaos while scratching a different, darker itch. This rendition maintained the abrasiveness with searing riffs, but with a more insidious undertone constructed by the sinister, reverberating bassline. Falco’s famously absurdist lyrics are met with a disaffected delivery that nurtures an interesting spectacle amid the simmering tension. Mclusky are at their best when they synthesise catchy, earworm guitar riffs with their iconic intensity, and the performance epitomised this songwriting philosophy.
The three-piece soon pivoted to two performances of tracks from their recent album, ‘unpopular parts of a pig’ and ‘chekhov’s guns’, respectively. The former pierced the veil of any lingering tension, imploding and erupting into stunning disarray. Both songs were met with a warm reception, comparable to that of many of the band’s classics. Some concert goers proved too warm, however, with one galvanised audience member persistently heckling Sayell, demanding he disrobed. As much as this unrelenting barrage quickly irritated Damien and myself alike, it was relatively simple to understand why the bassist was met with such a fond reception. Sayell’s energy was contagious and exemplified in his successful crowd surf for ‘Chases’, a number he also provided the vocals for. It was his spark, balanced by Falco’s more measured presence and witty remarks that fostered a radiating, palpable sense of on-stage chemistry that uplifted the performance.
The twenty-song setlist was extended for this special gig (adding ‘That Man Will Not Hang’), one that marked a homecoming for Sayell, capping off their run of dates. If their performance proved anything, it was that they are as hungry, exhilarating and rip-roaring as they have ever been. The band still operates at a level to be expected of one much less established, unapologetically performing with insatiable vigour while slotting their new material into a seamless set that keeps crowds gripped, reaffirming the album title and emphasising that as long as the world spins, audiences will want mclusky – because they are just that damn good.
the world is still here and so are we is out now via Ipecac Records. Get your copy on vinyl, cd or digital download from Bandcamp.
Read our interview with mclusky frontman Falco about the new album here and our review of the record here
Review by Thomas Hill
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