Live dance music is a tricky one, for sure.
But not for Evil Nine, from a distance two studio bods quivering behind a glowing iBook and looking to all intents and purposes like they’re updating their Facebook statuses. Only, they’re not – tonight we get Evil Pat and Tom in full zombie regalia, gleefully grinding away on amped-up basses, stridently confident and looking altogether like they’ve been gigging fab new LP ‘They Live’ for decades rather than weeks. Pardy deals assuredly with its vocodered vocals and regular contributor Juice Aleem appears stoke the crowd and MC on newies ‘All The Cash’, ‘Set if Off’ as well as oldies ‘Pearl Shot’ and ‘Crooked’ – both cleverly re-tooled and roughed up to suit new-look live ‘Nine.
The new album’s hard-rockin’ overtones are proudly paraded, although mercifully with none of the tacky bolted-on shredding of, say, Pendulum or The Prodigy. Cannily setting a live drummer at the heart of the set-up, their proto-grunge influences and pre-Evil Nine backgrounds in punk bands shine through as they dig out a brutal, stuttering Melvins-type groove on single ‘They Live’ and pound white-knuckled through the Emily Breeze-assisted ‘Twist the Knife’. ‘Luke Goss’ even trumps its recorded version with the live drums giving it a cantering Iron Maiden-esque roll. Once embellished with retro/electro/horror synths so deftly employed across the new album, it tears rather thrillingly through the venue like some unholy reckoning of Muse and Daft Punk.
Best of all though is ‘Icicles’, its yelping in-unison vocals, killer chorus and thundering basslines driving it along like some savage cousin of TV On The Radio, neatly surmising everything that’s great about Evil Nine: musically savvy, simultaneously melancholic and euphoric and capable of delivering even a live set with their singular clubby/druggy sensibility that ‘normal’ bands can only dream of mustering.
But there’s no denying the live drums lack the clarity, character and intent of their near faultless productions. And if you weren’t a fan already, this live show probably wouldn’t sway you. The subtle inflections, percussive punch and brooding atmospherics that make their club-bound output so devastatingly high-impact are lost here amongst churning distortion that at points makes them sound one dimensional and somewhat hook free.
Plenty of time yet to get it right though, and most importantly Evil Nine have hit the ground running, making good on a cracking album where so many before them have failed. In short: a considered and highly watchable dance-rock set that positively screams “Coming to a festival near you, SOON!”
