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APTBS shall be construed as the current New York’s loudest band. And the tradition has somehow, we think Sonic Youth at times. And the similarities are given, because APTBS unleash a veritable tsunami sound Fröhner and the poetry of distortion.
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While the buzz rises and falls on bands faster then you can tweet about it these days, some bands have managed to maintain their buzz without doing much more then playing some captivating shows. A Place to Bury Strangers is one of those bands that just won’t go away, and why would anyone want them to? These guys flat out kick ass, and with their strobe light stage show they” leave you speechless, deaf, and blind before you know it.
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Their set is terrifying, thrilling, hypnotic. Ackermann looms over the crowd arching and careening wildly across the stage, wielding his guitar like it’s ready to attack him. The scattergun drums of the record are admirably replicated, the bass loud and foreboding. The band offer up a batch of new songs; one which stuck out was a mainly instrumental piece, with a hint of Japanese influence running through it. Although the sound isn’t perfect, and the vocals are still lost in the whirlwind of sound, the songs come through much better. ‘To fix a gash in your head’, is especially thrilling.
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I like Mecanique Ondulatoire, the venue where I saw the ascendant fuzz rock royalty A Place to Bury Strangers, but by most standards – with just a 150-person capacity—it is too small for this band. (APTBS played Paris last November in the Nouveau Casino, a 400-person capacity venue.)
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All in all, the vocals are stronger and the elements come through in a far more pressing way than on record – it’s like a million opuses within one take, drum sticks vibrating in the air against hyperbolic strobe lighting. And the greatest shock of them all is the way the set evoks such a broad spectrum of artists: Kraftwerk, The Slits, The Cure and The Velvet Underground. It’s in a the bass lines, the groove.
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