Rocker (feedbot)
Gold Member
Since their sophomore album, ‘Never Exhale’, released at the end of January, Brighton noise rockers DITZ have been touring non-stop. DITZ themselves describe the record as “the sound of a band that hasn’t stopped for a breath”. Tonight marks the end of the first leg of a UK/EU tour that kicked off in Brighton over two months ago. Tomorrow the band fly back to Europe. Tomorrow, though, is nobody’s concern here, a packed out Chalk ready to move, to dance, to be submerged in the music.
Local three piece Staff Party kick the night off, overdriven bass and effects laden guitars creating a sound that’s far louder than it has any right to be. Taking influences from now classic noise outfits like Metz, Staff Party take control of their biggest stage yet with ease. Even though they’ve been together for a few years now, this is clearly a band with a fresh lease on life. With the exception of 2020’s ‘Steam’, every track here is unreleased, newly written since the band adopted a new drummer late last year. The energy is electric and purposeful, and the crowd soaks it in until set closer ‘Wasteland’ crashes to an end.
Knives take the stage next. Hailing from Bristol, the six-piece bring an extra punky bounce to tonight. ‘PHD’ sums up their set; Two guitars, bass, saxophone, twinned vocals, and drums all snaking around each other in a vicious, complex ouroboros. A wild, frantic half hour which leaves the room fully warmed for DITZ.
A large part of the beauty of noise rock – a loose genre term at best – is the focus on rhythm over melody. It drives us, strips the music back to its primal essence that throbs through our bones and veins and forces us to dance. Apt, then that DITZ announce themselves with the one-two punch of V90 into the discordant disco beats of ‘Taxi Driver’. Hundreds of people start moving from the first hi-hat hit, a writhing mass that won’t stop for the best part of an hour and a half.
Front person CA Francis is unstoppable, a haunting genderqueer performance that enthrals and leads. A nonbinary shaman of noise. For DITZ, exhausted after non-stop touring, this homecoming feels significant, and Francis is there to make sure every person here feels that significance with them. Unafraid of singing from inside the crowd, floating atop them, or appearing as a distant spectral vision on top of the bar. They return to the stage with an open bottle of Tuaca – Brighton’s totemic liqueur.
DITZ make their way with a methodic determination through ‘Never Exhale’ and their debut LP, ‘The Great Regression’, with barely a skip. The albums are interwoven, the newer material leading until about half an hour into the set when the opening track from ‘The Great Regression’, ‘Clocks’, marks the first appearance of something older. By this point, all the latest singles are over with. DITZ are now leading the crowd deeper. Sweat marks the trail.
In our masses, the songs start to bend and blend with us. The movement is constant. The rhythm unrelenting. Single notes carry us forward at times, at others a stark hi-hat alone with Francis’s vocals. Guitars scream into the ceiling during the chorus of ‘I Am Kate Moss’, this is sheer, unclimbable musicality. The kind of music that leaves you inspired and dumbfounded at once.
The band’s final song, ‘No Thanks, I’m Full’ is a full three minutes longer than the original recording from DITZ’s ‘EP1’. As they’re playing, it becomes clear how and why it grew into this beast. After a brutal, frantic chorus, the music slows and the instruments fade away, leaving nothing but the bass guitar and a snare drum. Strange, dissonant sounds fill the room from the other instruments. Francis leads the crowd down to the ground, sitting, squatting, waiting. The music itself has become coiled and tight. Finally, it releases, picking up speed as the crowd erupt from the floor into one final, sticky pit.
This is a night of catharsis, and DITZ are the priests ushering us all through it.
WILL BRIGHT
Local three piece Staff Party kick the night off, overdriven bass and effects laden guitars creating a sound that’s far louder than it has any right to be. Taking influences from now classic noise outfits like Metz, Staff Party take control of their biggest stage yet with ease. Even though they’ve been together for a few years now, this is clearly a band with a fresh lease on life. With the exception of 2020’s ‘Steam’, every track here is unreleased, newly written since the band adopted a new drummer late last year. The energy is electric and purposeful, and the crowd soaks it in until set closer ‘Wasteland’ crashes to an end.
Knives take the stage next. Hailing from Bristol, the six-piece bring an extra punky bounce to tonight. ‘PHD’ sums up their set; Two guitars, bass, saxophone, twinned vocals, and drums all snaking around each other in a vicious, complex ouroboros. A wild, frantic half hour which leaves the room fully warmed for DITZ.
A large part of the beauty of noise rock – a loose genre term at best – is the focus on rhythm over melody. It drives us, strips the music back to its primal essence that throbs through our bones and veins and forces us to dance. Apt, then that DITZ announce themselves with the one-two punch of V90 into the discordant disco beats of ‘Taxi Driver’. Hundreds of people start moving from the first hi-hat hit, a writhing mass that won’t stop for the best part of an hour and a half.
Front person CA Francis is unstoppable, a haunting genderqueer performance that enthrals and leads. A nonbinary shaman of noise. For DITZ, exhausted after non-stop touring, this homecoming feels significant, and Francis is there to make sure every person here feels that significance with them. Unafraid of singing from inside the crowd, floating atop them, or appearing as a distant spectral vision on top of the bar. They return to the stage with an open bottle of Tuaca – Brighton’s totemic liqueur.
DITZ make their way with a methodic determination through ‘Never Exhale’ and their debut LP, ‘The Great Regression’, with barely a skip. The albums are interwoven, the newer material leading until about half an hour into the set when the opening track from ‘The Great Regression’, ‘Clocks’, marks the first appearance of something older. By this point, all the latest singles are over with. DITZ are now leading the crowd deeper. Sweat marks the trail.
In our masses, the songs start to bend and blend with us. The movement is constant. The rhythm unrelenting. Single notes carry us forward at times, at others a stark hi-hat alone with Francis’s vocals. Guitars scream into the ceiling during the chorus of ‘I Am Kate Moss’, this is sheer, unclimbable musicality. The kind of music that leaves you inspired and dumbfounded at once.
The band’s final song, ‘No Thanks, I’m Full’ is a full three minutes longer than the original recording from DITZ’s ‘EP1’. As they’re playing, it becomes clear how and why it grew into this beast. After a brutal, frantic chorus, the music slows and the instruments fade away, leaving nothing but the bass guitar and a snare drum. Strange, dissonant sounds fill the room from the other instruments. Francis leads the crowd down to the ground, sitting, squatting, waiting. The music itself has become coiled and tight. Finally, it releases, picking up speed as the crowd erupt from the floor into one final, sticky pit.
This is a night of catharsis, and DITZ are the priests ushering us all through it.
WILL BRIGHT