Debaser@ Liars

Yeah, so I'm not exactly on top of my game. This show happened eight days ago, and I have no excuse save for laziness as to why I've neglected to post on it until now. Heckle me if you see me in public.

That having been said, it was a fucking amazing show, do mostly to the stage presence of Angus Andrew, lead singer of Liars. I only caught the tail end of No Age's set, but it was pretty heavy, fuzzed-out cosmic riffage. Seeing the Liars again was a pretty important experience for me, as I had the unfortunate experience last year of hearing my favorite track off their last album, "Freak Out," echoing off the walls of a bathroom stall at WaMu Center. I was determined not to let that happen again. Fortunately for me, their set, which was mostly their newest material, contained not one but two versions of "Freak Out," back-to-back. First was a blissed-out, shoegazy jam version, and then a traditional take on the catchy, california-cool surf groove.

Even more engrossing than the music (which was tremendous), was Andrew, who stumbled on stage piss-drunk and proceeded to drink for the rest of the set. Still in convalescence from a recent back injury, Andrew Frankenstein-walked his way between a set of three chairs on-stage, sitting periodically during songs to bellow right in the faces of his fans and spill beer everywhere. Sometimes, also, he fell out of the chairs. Photographic evidence of this phenomena:

Angus also announced to the crowd early in the set that he had pissed himself. The tell-tale stain in the crotch of his beige suit was clearly apparent. So maybe he wasn't sucking his thumb, rubbing his groin, or dancing around, but he was still a sweaty, fascinating mess. He had the gravitational pull of an old-school horror movie monster; aside from lumbering around like Dr. Frankenstein's nightmare of re-animated flesh, he displayed Dracula-like levels of creepiness as he crept up behind drummer Julian Gross during the encore. Gross returned the favor soon after by splintering a drumstick against Andrew's head.



MP3's to attempt to make-up for the lateness of this post:
Liars - Freak Out
No Age - I Wanna Sleep

All photos are via our usual channel: Ms. Jennifer Becker.