Drowners, Scarlet Rascal: Studio 2, Liverpool

Drowners

As Drowners present a Thursday night to be remembered, Getintothis’ Jessica Borden dove into the whirlwind world of the New York band.

Thursday night, a job interview, a gig, a delayed train, odd conversations in a pub with strangers and a guitar pick, sums up quite an interesting night.

The cold autumn air has settled in, sitting on the hectic last train home, the chatter of nights previous, wondering what stop you are at and how long until you can dive into your warm bed and sleep. All the while your ears still buzz from the gig that finished a while ago and you recount over the setlist and your favourite songs of the night.

This particular gig came in the form of Drowners at Studio 2. On Desire, their second album coming out in June, we are finally graced by their stage presence of the Indie rock dream band.

Whilst only making it down to catch the end of the support act Scarlet Rascal, the post punk industrial style vocals and distortion of melody catches the attention straight away and creates a dark hazy atmosphere about the room (also helped by the deep red stage lighting.)

As the stage is rearranged and set up for Drowners, the band wander on and off stage final dashes to the bar and a moment of trying to find the keyboard player (he appeared again pretty quickly.) The next thing the radio system goes silent and the lights dim, Drowners have took to their stage and their audience is in their places all gathered as close as possible to the dark red lit stage.

The intimate venue is packed and the bar empties out to make sure a good view is achieved.

Trouble maker and Cruel ways open the set in a flurry of high impact, raw energy, the exact thing you would expect of a New York based band, short and fast with a punch that could knock you on your arse. As the songs old and new are played through with a fury and high pace, each song is met with screams of joy and lead singer Matthew Hitt jokes around with the crowd and very quickly has them eating out of his hand.

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The tracks from their first self titled album Drowners, are clearly crowd favourites as Long hair and Button on Your Blouse amount in an even bigger burst of dancing than before. These tracks match so closely to the original studio track that, the raw edge to all of the tracks sounds on a whole new level live. The crowd is so captured by the energy of the band with the set at a flying pace that these songs act as a reminder of exactly why they are people’s favourite band.

Pick Up The Pace and Human Remains show how strong their latest album is, the album which developed the sound of their debut album. “I have searched all along these roads and terraces for you”. Personally a favourite line from Pick Up The Pace, and it is the lyrics that give Drowners an edge on other indie rock bands, combining the ordinary with the poetic. Hearing that through speakers live in an intimate venue is a feeling of joy beyond expression.

Drowners took control of an audience and held them in their palms until the last chord was played and they darted from the stage in a fashion that could only be linked to robbing something. Just like their songs, their set was full of fury, a whirlwind of emotion and passion to silence in an amount of time which feels like it almost wasn’t enough, you need more.