Philadelphia shoegaze band Nothing have been riding a wave of success through 2014 since releasing their debut full-length ‘Guilty Of Everything’ earlier at the start of the year. The album has received rave reviews right across the board and will no doubt top many ‘album of the year’ lists, and was followed up this month with an equally as impressive split release with fellow noise-makers Whirr. After relentless touring across the US, and sharing stages with the likes of Ceremony, Youth Code, Superheaven, and countless others, it’s time for Nothing to bring their blistering live show to the UK for the first time.
Due to some unfortunate road closures and parking issues, we only caught the last song of Brighton based band Fvnerals. From what we do see however, their brooding darkwave is intoxicating, and hopefully there will be another chance in the near future to catch them again.
Next it’s time for Milk Teeth to warm the crowd up on this freezing cold evening on the South Coast, and they don’t so much warm the room up, as they positively set it on fire. The band tear through ‘Vitamins’ and their recent single ‘Linda’ with the quiet/loud dynamic of their songs complimenting each other perfectly. They show their softer side with the hook-laden ‘Swear Jar’ before careening into the raucous set closer ‘Grease’. Milk Teeth are on the rise right now, and with their forthcoming ‘Sad Sack’ EP hitting in the New Year, it will be impossible to avoid them. Grunge never died, you just stopped listening.
The anticipation in the room for Nothing to take the stage could be cut with a knife, as people around the room begin take their positions and put in ear plugs to protect from the impending onslaught of noise that is about to pour from the speakers. They enter to a rumble of bass that almost shakes the Green Door Store to its foundations, as a sample of Richard Brautigan’s bittersweet ‘Love Poem’ is played out, drenched in feedback, before the band launch into the thunderous ‘July The Fourth’ from their recent split with Whirr, followed by the punk fury of‘Bent Nail’ which ends in a swirling crescendo guitar effects. The set is very heavy on ‘Guilty Of Everything’ with single ‘Dig’ sounding absolutely colossal, as the monotone vocal of guitarists Domenic Palermo and Brandon Setta echoes around the room.
Halfway through the set due to the sheer volume the band are playing at, Palermo’s amp finally gives up the ghost, which gives a brief reprieve from the aural attack of Nothing, and also sees some impromptu Nirvana karaoke from an eager audience member. Once the technical difficulties are fixed they launch straight back into ‘Get Well’, then the decaying beauty of ‘Hymn To The Pillory’. One of the main focuses of the evening is the machine of a drummer they have in Kyle Kimball, who is relentless throughout the set, barely stopping take a breath. This continues through the cacophony of the title track from 2012 EP ‘Downward Years To Come’, before the bringing the rapture with one final burst of noise in ‘B&E’, and leaving the stage to a cascade of noise.
Even the technical difficulties that plagued tonight’s show could not break the atmosphere in The Green Door Store. Nothing didn’t have anything to prove to anyone anyway, but tonight’s performance showed they are a one of a kind band that are deserving of all the praise that comes their way, and will leave their mark on the alternative world for a long time to come.