Every Time I Die

+ Drop Dead, Gorgeous, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, Blackhole

Zodiac at the Carling Academy, Oxford - 5 Apr 2008

by Simon T Diplock

Buffalo boys bring their very best to Oxford

"Nothing stops Every Time I Die putting in a performance so incredible, electric, fun, furious and faultless that people are singing praises, wringing sweat from their clothes, and still smiling uncontrollably hours after the last squeal of feedback. "

Every Time I Die are a band on form. But then again, they always have been. So it shouldn’t be a surprise when tonight, in front of a capacity crowd no less, the Buffalo band turn in another blinder - the sort of show the boys have been putting on for years now and the kind of gig that makes other bands go scuttling back to the drawing board. The Oxford Academy, never the most rock’n’roll of places, gets a performance so incredible, electric, fun, furious and faultless that people are singing praises, wringing sweat from their clothes, and still smiling uncontrollably hours after the last squeal of feedback. Before the headliners prove just how superior they’ve become though, the Academy has to deal with a dangerously dire supporting line-up.

First up and Blackhole have a lot to work to do. On barely 20 minutes after doors, and their name not even on the gig posters, it’s safe to say not many people know who they are. But that’s no reason for frontman Lee to make with the sort of talk that suggests Oxford owes him something. And when he descends from the high stage and down to the floor, he doesn’t do it with punk-rock camaraderie in mind but an aggressive and confrontational attitude. And as much as his band’s songs suggest a skill and spirit that’ll take them further up other bills, tonight they sound like spoiled kids and New-Noise heads for the bar. A shame.

After that, Scary Kids Scaring Kids couldn’t sound nicer, taking every available opportunity to thank the crowd for coming out, but muster only a meagre show. The Arizona act aren’t awful - spiky pop like ‘The Only Medicine’ buzzing with just enough energy to entertain - but they certainly aren’t great either and tick over the sort of typically American performance that feels like they only ever gave Oxford 60% effort. Drop Dead, Gorgeous though, don’t even manage those sorts of figures. From start to finish the Colorado sextet are a sham, ignoring the audience, barely moving, bawling incoherently, playing sloppily, and trying to pass massive moments of awkward silence off as arty atmosphere. Rubbish.

After that, Every Time I Die could pass wind through their amps and struggle not to sound half-decent but when they do arrive, cracking the set open with ‘We’rewolf’, they sound monstrously brilliant. ‘Bored Stiff’ gets the entire venue to scream out words they’d never say in front of their mothers, ‘Imitation…’ inspires insane mosh moves, and ‘Pigs Is Pigs’ sounds like the world’s greatest pop song gone drunk and disorderly.

There’s a pleasing amount of arms aloft for older material too, a devilishly irate ‘Floater’ the pick of the bunch. ‘The New Black’ and ‘Ebolarama’ are an irresistible one-two closer, the band moving like lightning and the building damn-near knocked off its foundations, and then Every Time I Die are gone, leaving behind just those sweat-soaked clothes, those wide smiles, and the feeling that Oxford just saw a band who are always on form go supernova. Superb.
Mendelsohn said on April 16th 2008 [report abuse]

This has nothing much to do with anything about the band, but I was recently pleased to discover that 'buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo' is a sentence which makes perfect sense in English. It means 'Bison from Buffalo, New York, who are intimidated by other bison in their community also happen to intimidate other bison in their community.' I had to share.

jonas said on May 15th 2008 [report abuse]

what the hell. this review really sucks. every band that played were amazing. drop dead gorgeous rocked. screw this. it was the best concert iv ever been to!

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