OMG Entertainment

Mar 30

Live: And So I Watch You From Afar - Dublin Andrews Lane Theatre

“We are the bull, you are the china shop” is the clichéd introduction offered up by Belfast instrumental punk stars And So I Watch You From Afar on their MySpace. Plenty are ready to be smashed to smithereens tonight, with punters outside Andrews Lane forming an orderly queue well before support acts BATS and Jogging have stepped into the spotlight. It’s a sign of how far this band have come: when ASIWYFA rocked up in The Purty Loft less than a year ago, they played to an audience of no more than one hundred. Tonight, they’re rocking out in front of closer to a thousand.

The Choice Award Nominees have a belter of a live show. Throw in every rock and roll stereotype you like, but there’s just no denying the way the bassist and two guitarists leap about the stage, play off each, nod their heads to the beat and generally behave like they’ve more energy then sense makes for compelling viewing. ASIWYFA’s live show is about two things: energy and timing, the latter of which comes to the fore at the height of efforts like ‘S Is For Salamander’, a stunning, dimension-twisting beast of a song that sums up what these lads are all about. Arguably their best known song, ‘Set Guitars To Kill’ is omitted from today’s set, but with the likes of (relatively) slow number ‘The Voiceless’ and the astonishingly mood-morphing ‘K Is For Killing Spree’ thrown into the mix, ASIWYFA can get by without it.

Even with the lads – particularly ginger nut case Tony (usually the feistiest member, and that’s saying something) – looking tired after their recent return from Texas’ SXSW Music Festival, there’s a real sense of the controlled aural assault wrenching at your ears throughout the set. There’s an argument that instrumental music is somehow less compelling, or less meaningful than that with lyrics. To add words to ASIWYFA’s music, though, would be to dilute what’s a mind-melting, head-banging performance that’s taken them from their own front rooms to featured artist in UK rock mega-zine Kerrang! recently. One to watch? Being named after the member’s big-brother, CCTV fuelled paranoia, ASIWYFA might not like the idea, but it’s damn hard to look away.

Photo: Kieren Frost, State.ie

Written by :

James Hendicott

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