PC World, Lonesaw, John-Robin Bold: Q U A RR Y, Liverpool

Lonesaw

PC World are the headliners at the opening of the coolest venue in town, Getintothis’ Peter Goodbody was keen to be in from the start.

Tonight sees the opening of Liverpool’s newest venue in the form of Q U A RR Y.

Although the building has been operating as a gig space for a while as 17 Love Lane, it now sees a new identity and declares itself a home for SPINE and all things noise, weird and leftfield.

This is our kind of joint.

With a capacity of just 60 at the moment it’s a similar size to the Kazimier Stockroom. The team had a last minute push to get everything ready for tonight’s opening, but they succeeded and the place looks like it could / should become a regular haunt on the Liverpool gig scene.

Already, they are talking about plans for expansion and an increase in capacity.

Regular readers will be aware of our keenness for Lonesaw, who we have seen plenty of times, but the other two names on the bill are new to us.

And, indeed, after a busy week that left us with precious little time to do any pre-gig research, we’re coming into this review pretty much blind.

Hamburg’s John-Robin Bold makes surreal, haunting soundscapes with his laptop set on a table in front of the stage. They demand attention. They are subtle and understated, yet rather beautiful.

The audience behaves impeccably, for these are not loud pieces either, at least to start with. There’s no chatter, just respectful silence as Bold creates his magic.

Spoken word is added into the mix before, perhaps, inevitably, the volume gets ramped up and we’re treated to a glorious wall of echo and feedback, pulsating beats and the kind of electronic noise that just brings a big grin to our face.

This is a SPINE gig, after all.

The set appears to wind down before one last push on the volume button signals the end of a very engaging half hour of experimental electronica. It went down well with the audience too and there was a significant cheer at the end.

Andrew Weatherall: “the epitome of the best of his generation”

Lonesaw, of course, are anything but subtle.

We’ve enthused about them often on these pages and they do no wrong from where we stand. Tonight they are full of punch and venom.

It just seems to have been turned up to another level, even from when we saw them last not that long ago. The bass seems heavier, the drums hit harder and the saxes more discordant than ever. It’s a glorious mixture of noise and rhythm that just fits our bill perfectly.

We love it, and tonight they were on sparkling form.

We’d also love it if they could find a bigger audience, but maybe they’re too niche or too much of an acquired taste. But the crowd in Q U A RR Y tonight know what they’re in for and they too love it as much as we do.

And then, all too quickly, they were done.

The crowd has thinned somewhat for PC World. How many times have we made that point before?

Their synth laden beats and screaming vocals are reminiscent of Airdrawndagger era Sasha crossed with, say, X Mal Deutschland, but in a bad mood.

It’s kind of synth music for punks and for those who do stay, they get an angry, powerful set that refuses to compromise. It’s dark, literally and metaphorically (hence, just the one photo) as vocalist William Dante Deacon prowls around the room shouting at the audience as though they were being sent to the naughty step.

It’s raw energy being unleashed at the end of a long week, but we’re happy to soak it up.

The duo describe themselves as snotty industrial, fit for mutant punks. We couldn’t write it better. So, we’ll just leave it there.

So, kudos to Q U A RR Y. We can see this venture cannot have been easy to pull off. There is, by your own admission, more to do.

But for now you have the coolest space in town. And we look forward to seeing what happens next on this journey.

Images by Getintothis’ Peter Goodbody