Bobby Would – the enigmatic musical alter ego of German artist Robert Pawliczek – may stand calm and static on stage ahead of Protomartyr, but his solo compositions swirl and spiral, a heady and hypnotic approximation of what the Velvet Underground might have sounded like if they’d heard shoegaze. Add his lugubrious Jim Reid vocals and you’re not so much taken on a drug trip as enveloped in the fuzzy cocoon of a drug comedown. The grainy-effect lighting plays tricks too, making it feel as though you’re watching his performance on old, flickering Super 8 film.
Detroitian headliners Protomartyr also come across as something of a blast from the past, the core quartet (tonight without touring keyboard player Kelley Deal of The Breeders) having much in common with Cleveland greats Pere Ubu. If their taut, street-smart postpunk with a frisson of tension and menace is reminiscent of the recent rash of acts that includes Fontaines DC, Shame and more, then it’s worth remembering that they got there first. Protomartyr have never been the feistiest, most feral of outfits, preferring a brooding, reflective intensity, and there’s a relatively measured quality to much of new album Formal Growth In The Desert, their sixth.
Looking, in his suit jacket and loud shirt, like a minor character who idolises Tony Soprano, Joe Casey is as ever the focal point – a distinctive frontman in the vein of Future Islands’ Samuel T Herring, the Nightingales’ Robert Lloyd and (yes) the late Mark E Smith. But while his baritone bark makes him an indispensable component of the ensemble, the lyrical nuance for which he’s renowned is a little lost beneath or behind Greg Ahee’s guitar.
What tonight underlines perhaps most strikingly, though, is the potency of Protomartyr’s rhythm section. Scott Davidson contributes nimble bass, while 3800 Tigers and particularly A Private Understanding find drummer Alex Leonard in fine form, dexterously and creatively rhythmic without being show-offish.
Barely four songs in, I’m feeling guilty about having had Protomartyr cynically pegged as little more than the post-punk National you could safely take home to meet your 6Music Dad. Something about them has never quite clicked with me before – but on what is already a warm evening, they catch fire with recent single Elimination Dances and burn brightly until final track Why Does It Shake? is no more. That I’m willingly swept up in the subsequent stampede for the merch desk should suffice to confirm my status as a zealous convert.
Protomartytr + Bobby Would, Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, Fri 11 Aug
words BEN WOOLHEAD photos BILLY STILLMAN