The Warlocks @ Faversham
By Ben Daure
The night begins as Dead Combo take the stage, and this electro-rock duo have a rather big challenge in front of them. "Why, does it look like a tough crowd tonight?" Well not exactly, the challenge ahead of Dead Combo tonight is that there really isn't much of an audience at all. In fact I would say the Faversham is about one eighth full and of those over half are sat down. You couldn't help but feel sorry for the band as they poured their hearts and souls into the performance.
"So, Dead Combo who are they?" Dead Combo are a 2-piece band from the States, their music consists of chainsaw-like electronic beats and highly-distorted over-trebled bass lines, for all of you that need a point of reference, imagine "Baby Food" style beats with not very good Oasis style vocals. Dead Combo's music is very wooden and has little improvisational leeway.
Dead Combo's lead singer Tó Trips, who looked quite a lot like a worn out Dave Grohl, really tried to win over what little crowd was there but unfortunately it's very hard to get a reaction out of 5 people who don't have a clue who you are and are eagerly awaiting their favourite band. In a way you have to sympathise with the band but also the audience. Why? Because Dead Combo's music could get a bit repetitive, their intros and bridges were fantastic, very original and they really caught the attention of your ears. However the rest of each of their songs sounded, well... the same as the previous 30 minutes that they had just played.
My final word on Dead Combo has to mention every end of nearly every song. Why you ask, because it just cut off. There was no ending to any of their songs, now I'm sure it's not like that on their album (at least I hope not) but it was like they were fucking up which doesn't leave you with a great impression of the band. If the end of the set had been a bit different then there is still a chance of a good impression to be left on what is now the arriving crowd. Unfortunately this was not the case as the same thing happened again. The outro music just cut off and the band left the stage and looked at the equipment. So what happened? There was no applause because people didn't know if there was technical fault or if it was actually over.
So all in all, even though they poured everything they had into being good entertainers, communicating with the crowd and moving about and not being stagnant, their music was lacking and no one know what the hell was going on. Dead Combo's music is very good and they have a lot of potential.
Ok so now on to the band of the night, The Warlocks. "The Warlocks eh, what are they like?" The Warlocks are a 7 piece band from LA with 2 drummers; yes that's right 2 drummers. Their music is that similar to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club but a bit more upbeat and their influences include such bands as The Jesus & Mary Chain, Neu and Hawkwind, and have incredible visualised performances executed by the band's very own "visionist" Spencer.
The ticket says "The Warlocks are on at 10.30." Now is it just me or is that weird?
Usually tickets have a "doors at" time and often a "first band at" sign but never the time in which the headlining band is on. Maybe this is why Dead Combo had a minute audience, seems a bit harsh on the supporting act really. Also, in this case The Warlocks started nearly half an hour early so anyone actually arriving at 10.30 will have missed at least half of the set. Just wanted to point that out as it is rather odd (it's even odder for a band to be 30 minutes early).
Onto the actual performance now, I pointed out earlier that The Warlocks had 2 drummers. Well for all of you who have been to the Faversham the stage isn't particularly huge, so when The Warlocks came on stage they had a little dilemma. "Who doesn't go on the stage?" Well unfortunately for Corey Lee Granet (guitar) it was him, pushed right off of the stage out of sight, poor guy.
Did it affect their playing? Na, not at all, their dark yet ambient free flowing musical abilities made The Warlocks really "something else" to see live. Having 2 drummers added so much more depth to the performance with the bass drums achieving a much more earth shaking feel (literally). Their set was also helped by Spencer, the band's vision creator, who had set up two "old school" projectors which displayed a variety of different twisted images ranging from the very obscure, such as silhouettes of people in pain, to the very erotic with women and men dancing around naked in circles. The synchronization of the drums was simply incredible yet in a way disappointing. "WHAT, disappointing, what are you talking about?" Well you would think that if you had 2 drummers you could create percussion in your music that no one else could do simply because you have twice the drumming skills and capacity. Unfortunately this was not the case, in fact it actually hindered them, why? Because if one of the drummers decided to go off track and add a new drum fill and the other drummer didn't know about it then it could have sounded terrible.
Musically The Warlocks were absolutely phenomenal live. Every note was dead on time and the vocals were something to be remembered. Playing such epic songs as "Shake the dope out", "Isolation" and of course their new single "Surgery" even with the venue only 3/4 full there was every bit as much atmosphere as if the room had been at maximum capacity. During "The Dope Feels Good" the whole mood of the night changed from very relaxed to a sort of "hey let's jump about" vibe. Almost as if any misery had just left the building and we had all been injected with Prozac through The Warlocks' music. Aided by Spencer's split visuals of people dancing on a black and white screen with erotic dancers, this was in my honest opinion the song of the night.
After performing "Song for Nico" the band exited the stage. Only to be beckoned back on by loyal fans, and how could they say no. Bobby and crew reclaimed the stage for one last time, picked up his oversized red guitar and proclaimed "we couldn't leave you all" as they indulged us with their final song of the night "Suicide Note". Although the song was not as upbeat as its predecessors it was a great winding down tune for the night and it was well received by the crowd, a great ending to a great, well done.
