For those of us of (ahem) more advanced years, is there anything more dispiriting than hearing a millennial singing about feeling “old and tired”? At least Terrapins vocalist Izzy Warren, warming up for Heavy Lungs and Ditz at Cardiff’s Club Ifor Bach, has the good grace to acknowledge that world-weariness and anhedonia are unbecoming of someone her age, and her performance suggests she’s more fuelled by fury than numbed by apathy.
Her band – a rough-around-the-edges, wet-behind-the-ears Wolf Alice – take time to settle into their grungy groove but ramp up the pace as the set progresses, giving drummer Ryan plenty of opportunity to demonstrate he’s back fully fit and on form after a nasty skateboard-related head injury last year.
But Terrapins are blown out of the water (pun intended) by what comes next. Heavy Lungs are quite simply the best full-throttle, no-holds-barred punk band I’ve seen in ages – and I include scene legends Fucked Up in that. Feral, aggressive, relentless. The Stooges are an obvious touchstone throughout, but on more than one occasion Heavy Lungs are an extremely welcome reminder of what Danish hardcore/post-punks Iceage used to be like before they lost the plot, while set closer (A Bit Of A) Birthday is a fever dream in which Wire’s Colin Newman has been drafted in to sing on one of Nick Oliveri’s punkier Queens Of The Stone Age compositions.
Credit to guitarist Oliver Southgate, bassist James Minchall and drummer George Garratt for the ferocity of the turbocharged sonic attack, but frontman Danny Nedelko – as immortalised in song by friends and fellow Bristolians Idles – is very much the focal point, even when he’s not onstage. He jogs on the spot, barges around the audience, screams in people’s faces and at one point pauses for a liedown on the bar, generally displaying the complete commitment to the cause that you’d expect of a man who has his band’s anvil logo tattooed on his chest.
It’s the sort of set that leaves headliners cursing their luck at having to follow, and at first, Ditz don’t seem to be quite up to the job. It probably doesn’t help that they’re less immediate, linear and urgent, and that vocalist Cal Francis initially maintains an aloof distance from the crowd (metaphorically speaking, at least) rather than throwing himself into the thick of the action. But gradually it clicks into gear, and by the time the Brighton-based mob get to Role Model and I Am Kate Moss, we’re all well on their wavelength.
The Alcopop! label is synonymous with fresh-faced indie pop and perky, clean-cut punk-lite, so Ditz represent a significant departure from the norm: murky, intense, brain-bending noise-rock that cannibalises post-hardcore and (thanks primarily to bassist Caleb Remnant) the Amphetamine Reptile sound and packs ample power to rattle your fillings.
Francis steps off the monitor to go for a mingle and crowd surf, powerhouse drummer Sam Evans puts a can of Carling to good use as a temporary percussion instrument, and the night ends amid a thrilling, cacophonous squall – Ditz having been pushed to the absolute limit by their predecessors on the Clwb stage.
Ditz, Heavy Lungs + Terrapins, Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, Sat 22 Apr
words BEN WOOLHEAD
