Chrome Hoof, Bats

Whelan's, Dublin

“Bats will destroy you!” goes the chant as the ferocious Dubliners begin their set. By the end, they’ve pretty much made good on their promise. The misleadingly unassuming five-piece might look like your average indie boys about town, but their fearsomely loud racket would scare the pants off the average Whelan’s regular. Bespectacled frontman Rupert possesses a terrifying banshee wail, while his bandmates contribute group chants, blending the screaming intensity of XBXRX or Blood Brothers with the lithe dance-punk rhythms of early Rapture. All the while, the three guitarists intertwine in a bewildering maelstrom of spazzy picking, breakneck riffage and head-spinning time changes on the likes of the astonishing ‘Husband And Wife’. It might be early in the night, but we feel pleasantly ravaged by the end of it.

Of course, Chrome Hoof will never have the problem of being upstaged by an opener, however good they may be. One of the few truly unique bands you will ever see, they too invite us to dance, but with a side order of molten metal, not to mention extreme silliness. First, a mysterious figure appears onstage to recite an incantation, the silver-caped line-up dutifully following him onstage and launching into ‘Nordic Curse’. Everything about this band is pure theatre: only crazed frontwoman Lola Olafisoye beats the dress code, clad as she is in a curious dress that reveals a huge silver pentagram when her arms are outstretched. Bassist Leo Smee, meanwhile, sports a natty, Gladiator-style helmet, while the uniform is even carried through to the identical silver trainers all eight members wear. To our left, there’s violin, guitar and Rick Wakeman-scale keyboards. To our right, Chloe Herington and Emma Sullivan switch between sax, synth, bassoon and trumpet, with the elfin Sullivan somehow summoning incredible screams, such as on the chorus of the crushing ‘Death Is Certain!’.

Every song from last year’s ‘Pre-Emptive False Rapture’ album gets an outing. ‘Circus 9000′ and ‘Pronoid’ perhaps suffer a little from the frantic speed at which they are played, but in every other respect this is a perfect show. The epic ‘Moss Covered Obelisk’ and ‘Spokes of Uridium’ stomp all over their recorded cousins, the latter closing the main set and sparking madcap dancing from the crowd down the front, which by this point includes a fleet-footed Rupert from Bats. The world at large may not be ready for Chrome Hoof just yet, but tonight their metallic funk feels like the most fun we’ll have all year. Chris Jones

Issue #51 - I Told You This Would Be A Good Issue

Featuring Biffy Clyro, Of Montreal, Duke Special, Frightened Rabbit, Cold War Kids, Jay Reatard, Pat Mills, and more.