The crowd were ready this one and so was I. Without evoking poetic license I conservatively claim that after listening to DEADLETTER’s debut LP ‘Hysterical Strength’ for about two minutes, the thought ‘Man, this band would be incredible live’ was clear in my mind. So when they decided to play in my home town it would have taken a good many physical restraints, locked doors and liberally consumed sedatives to stop me.
Thankfully ‘anti-climatic disappointment’ don’t seem to be words in DEADLETTER’s vocabulary. The moment the band took the stage, closely followed by frontman and dancing guru Zac Lawrence, you could feel that we were in for something special. Lawrence was shirtless, armed with a tambourine and was clearly taking no prisoners. This was going to be good…
Straight into the opener, ‘Credit to Treason’, the band lit up and played with the captivating intensity that ran through the whole night. Lawrence pounded the tambourine against his chest with the ferocity of a jack hammer and the band ripped through the song. The melodic bass lines and pounding drums held it all together with guitars that were both loosely thrashy and as tight as a bull elephant’s speedos. But what came as a surprise to me was just how much the sax came to lift and define the DEADLETTER live sound. I hadn’t picked up on it as much from listening to the album but the rasping drone and jazz soaked wailing really stood out and gave the show something more than I’d expected.
Despite the fact that the band have only released two EPs and one full album, they went on to play a phenomenal set that was full of stone-cold bangers. Amongst the many I particularly enjoyed ‘More Heat!’, ‘Hysterical Strength’, ‘Mere Mortal’, ‘Deus Ex Machina’ and the sing-a-long gloriousness of ‘Binge’. Throughout the show DEADLETTER played as if their lives depended on it and Lawrence was on top form. He jumped amongst the crowd and sang as with the confidence and swagger of a peyote-fuelled shaman – Iggy Pop from the Yorkshire Dales, dancing with all of his elbows and rarely stopping to draw breath.
Please go and see DEADLETTER. See them while they are good and hungry and authentic and real. See them soon because the gig I saw was something special and I promise that you won’t go home disappointed.
