ASIWYFA, Hornets, Dog Will Hunt
The Retro, Portrush
1st March 2013
It takes something to justify going out. It takes something more to justify driving from Wexford up to the north coast as one person did. It takes something more than just an intimate hometown gig. It takes a certain kind of devotion, and to be honest, it’s hard for any band to justify that sort of fanaticism. Yet as the walls seem to sweat, and for once the cliché is true as condensation soaks the back wall, itself less than 10 metres from the stage, it makes perfect sense.
This small, cramped mass of people – from oldies like ATL to kids who weren’t in their teens when the band first performed here, from scenester to cynic, other bands, hipsters, check shirt-wearers, fashionistas, rockers, locals, friends, travellers are all united in the moment, forgetting anything else, and being linked in the sort of communal experience that makes it all worthwhile.
It’s unlikely that either Dog Will Hunt or Hornets will reach these levels of dedication, yet that is not a slight on them. The former bring a North Coast heaviness and melodic brutality to the sort of math-inflected material that used to be a specialty of the late Richter Collective label. ‘Building Borders’ has the sort of dumb bounce of Devo’s ‘Whip It’, and the appearance of Rory Friers for ‘Dog Will Hunt’ brings another level of intensity to it.
NI hardcore band Hornets
‘Mission Statement’ is relentless, and ‘F Strings’ brings “the master” Johnny Adger to the stage to free up our vocalist for crowd-surfing duties. Reduced again to a three piece, they close with ‘Weekend Warrior’, one of their early songs, and it’s clear that they established their blueprint of louder, faster, harder early on and haven’t felt the need to ever deviate from this. Nor should they – a hornet is a dangerous insect capable of inflicting a painful sting - sounds about right.
Normally a crowd will disperse between bands as people take the chance for a drink, a smoke or just a change of scenery, but more than a few stick around, anxious to retain prime spots for ASIWYFA. The first thing to note is probably the most dramatic as we have lyrics. Well, not quite, the couple of new vocals are more like additional instruments, repetitive mantras adding another layer to the sound. The euphoria of ‘Big Thinks Do Remarkable’ is in its simplicity – an uplifting refrain of “the sun is in our eyes” conveying the idea of raising your head to the sky, while ‘Like A Mouse’ goes back to woah-ohs and ends up somewhere between Battles and Not Squares.
The slithering, reptilian ‘Search:Party:Animal’ contorts and twists, hypnotising and striking repeatedly, before the siren call of ‘Set Guitars To Kill’ makes this old building shake. By the end we’re drained, spent, happy and probably better people.
As for ASIWYFA, locally they’ve often set standards, raised the bar and been a focal point for other bands, and they continue to do so. This was a preview and practice for their upcoming tour. Anyone fancy a road trip?
William Johnston
Pics: Stephen Lockhart
