It is Sunday 29 Nov 2009. I need to write a review of a paper on tonality in various Bantu languages by Mr. Larry Hymen (great name, I know). Unfortunately the 11% beer with which Tom plied me last night has unsteadied my metaphorical pen. Perhaps writing a review of Dÿse (25 Nov 2009 at the LVC, Leiden) will unknot some of the strands in ol’ Duder’s head.
Although less inebriated than for the Vox Von Braun show, I was not sober for this gig. Thus, the same structural conventions are employed (see my last review for a comparison).
“Dÿse and beer”
Equipment: two crazy German guys (tautologous? – self Ed.). According to Lena, who can tell from the German accent on their English, they are from East Germany. They wear a uniform: white and black shirts. The colours are in two blocks, split vertically asunder. I have only seen the film Das Leben der Anderen once, but I’m pretty sure this makes them members of the Stasi. One plays the drums (big ride cymbals, both Zildjian), the other guitar (Fender Strat, a masshoose fuck-off stack).
Sound: It was really fucking loud. Anything loud created by a drummer/guitarist pair who are not Lighting Bolt inevitably sounds like Death From Above 1979. Their sound is better than DFA is two ways: 1) less shitty bass, 2) less Canad.
Songs: Angular, riff-laden, with a good use of the loud-heavy dynamic (an expression pedal was used to control volume). The drummer was solid: some great half-time beats. Rolls were sparsely but cleverly employed. Their encore was real slow and moody. Inescapably, some structures were very similar to those of DFA. Some great vocals – after the heavy section in the song ‘Treppe’, the lead singer panted like a dog for two minutes before launching into this monster riff. Singer’s voice is less whinny than the DFA singer. . I always thought DFA tried too hard to persuade girls to fuck them – they have lyrics like “Sexy woman meet me after work / I wanna show you how I handle business / I wanna show you how the mail-boy flirts”” (‘Sexy Results’). Dÿse don’t suffer the same malady – or at least I think they don’t – actually I don’t have a clue because all the lyrics were in fucking German.
Performance: As an obvious homage to Lightning Bolt, they played on the floor. For the majority of the time the drummer went mental. The guitarist lurched over his microphone for long periods. In the quiet sections of songs he mostly looked at the floor, deciding which of his multitude of foot-pedals to press. Lengthy and irrelevant anecdotes punctuated the intermission between songs. These were indicative of their endearing ‘Crazy-German’ characters. At the end of the performance they hugged each other for an excessively long time.
Overall: As I retired to the bar, my thoughts were thus:
“These guys must totally rock Germany. I mean, what else do they have? Fucking Seeed and Peter Fox. And the Hoff. I paid 5 euros to see this, and I actually don’t feel overly aggrieved.”
“Dÿse and coffee”
The aesthetic of their myspace makes me feel instantly nauseous (black and white stripes). Their songs still sound good, but without the excessive volume present at the gig, something is missing. I think it’s a bass guitar!! Their lyrics aren’t in German after all. I feel pretty embarrassed that I’m losing the ability to discern my native tongue. Fuck. They have a horn section in one of their songs. A bold move: especially considering that it sounds a bit shit.
I would, out of choice, listen to these guys. And unless you’re a total dickface, you should too.
3.75 wobblies.
J. E. Griffiths
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