ASIWYFA launched their album in Draperstown recently with the almighty support of a Glasgowbury G Session.
InExistence won the right to open the door, taking home with them a substantial fan base to their thick, animated wall of sound type noise that fronted through Johanna’s lead female vocals was something a little special.
It’s fresh, raw and exciting rock that shows signs of real early promise and considering their less than four month existence, that can only be a good thing.
LaFaro on the other hand are as close to seasoned pros as you’re likely to encounter.
From the opening mostly instrumental opening, Jonny Black et al ooze a constructed coolness and have the crowd eating from the palm of their hand within minutes.
In fact, LaFaro are so good, if ASIWYFA had to pull out we wouldn’t have been overly disappointed.
Leningrad is an early ear basher, one that grabs you by the nuts and isn’t afraid to tug hard while that song about big dicks has us worrying for our own.
LaFaro were the epitome of all that’s good in a G Session, and they didn’t even need Tuppeny nudger to prove it.
But ASIWYFA thanlkfully don’t have to pull out and Draperstown is still pinching itself at the thought of stealing their album launch from Belfast.
Taking themselves and their music as serious as humanly possible, you can almost feel every one of their hairs simultaneously stand on end.
For ASIWYFA are the most professional innovators on the circuit, throwing kitchen sink and all against your ears, guaranteeing their infectious work will ring in your ears for nigh on two days.
Not that you’ll be complaining too much however, for what you hear will leave you pondering issues from your very existence to its inevitable demise, arguably saying more with no words than most bands accomplish with an essay of lyrics.
Sonically challenging, thoughtfully proactive and unique, ASIWYFA performed a set so perfected right down to the last riff, it’s as if the gods got together and built a new world right before our eyes.
And just like that start, middle and end process so too goes the heavy metal wonder of such instant hits as ‘If It Ain’t Broke, Break it’ and ‘A Little Solidarity Goes A Long Way’, starting small before enveloping all you know in small worlds of fantastical beauty and rightly positioned anger before concluding their journey with an answer, a cause.
There’s a visible heart that pounds through the personas of the four leading men, feeling every note, every beat, every meaning flow their visible and charismatic stage souls, loving every minute and knowing that we feel likewise.
Rory and Tony in particular act as the would-be vocalists, echoing all that’s good about the band, the glue between four likeminded individuals out to shape the future of music; music that glides effortlessly between scorching post-punk assaults and delicate, light as air intricacies.
‘I Capture Castles’ and ‘This Is Our Machine…’ represent the oldies, still holding their own in the band’s impressive artillery while a fanatical ending, absorbing the combined energy of everyone around them, sees ASIWYFA make a bold statement of intent. Live music has never sounded so good.
