No Age – Scala, London 19/10/09

26 October 2009, 10:35 | Written by Sam Parfitt

(Live)

No Age mean many things to many different people, self-described as ‘dream-punk’ their music is hypnotic and harmonic yet stripped-back and so noisy you probably couldn’t even tell the guitarist is only using three chords. Such was the case at the Scala on Monday night. The duo, who brought LA’s DIY punk scene to our attention back in 2008, have just released a new EP, Losing Feeling, and the place was buzzing.

Now, I couldn’t really tell you all that much about the intricacies of the gig as I spent most of it furiously slam-dancing to frenetic noise blasts, trying to decipher and sing along to the drowned, out-of-tune vocals, or with my head down and eyes-closed, lulled into a false sense of security whilst trying to navigate my way around the various projectile limbs of crowd surfers and stage divers that came my way – Most of which ended up on a direct impact with my face and lower jaw regardless.

But what I can say, is that they managed to unite the whole of the usually impersonal Scala to create a noticeably more intimate venue for the duration of the set by totally giving it their all, be that through Randy’s concentrated thrashings or Dean’s full-body snare hits. Their set mixed the now standard classics with newer material, showing a progression towards a more a textural and layered sound, with the closest they’ve ever come to hummable vocal melodies yet, and with the older stuff remaining as raw and as ramshackle as ever.

No Age prove that you don’t need fancy guitar skills, discernible lyrics that you can relate to, or for that matter, a bassist, to play songs that have a real profound feeling or energy. And for me, there is nothing more euphoric than the raw tangible energy created by two guys pounding the shit out of their instruments – No fancy metaphors to hide behind, just putting everything into creating a beautiful, beautiful noise.