The streets are empty due to the icy roads and legends about an oncoming snow storm.
The fact that today is a Sunday doesn’t help either, however there is still quite a few dedicated people here tonight at Broadcast ready for a dose of post-punk and 80s reminiscent synthesizers.
The first support band of the night is a four-piece from Glasgow called WomenSaid.
The band confidently starts their set of slightly electronic, but at the same time dark both in lyrical and auditory sense tunes.
The dimmed down colourful lights of Broadcast work extremely well with the genre of music played tonight and people don’t seem to need much time to start nodding their heads to the beat.
Next up is CHUMP and they manage to make the evening even more atmospheric with their grunge sound, which is enhanced by the venue’s speakers.
Tara Hally as always keeps it fun with her lighthearted observations about everyday life.
Even though she’s having a bit of a trouble while tuning her guitar, the new song the band performs tonight sounds absolutely great and rhythmical and gets people excited for their new material.
The main act of the night, SEXTILE, are a Los Angeles based band that describe their music as primitive post punk from outer space.
All the guys in the band have a very certain signature look – leather jacket, skinny jeans and a very blonde haircut.
They start their set off with ‘French Song’, which is one of the few songs played tonight that are not from the band’s latest 2017 album, Albeit Living.
Follow up is the way more familiar ‘Who Killed Six’ – a catchy and heavy synthy track that actually doesn’t seem that synthy anymore after the highly electronic ‘Ripped’.
Quite a lot of people are dancing to this computerised post-punk madness, but it’s easy to see why.
The beat is always very catchy, energetic and almost club like and even though one might say that SEXTILE have something in common with post-punk contemporaries such as Holograms, who are also very keen to use electronic sounds, feels like with Albeit Living they went in a bit different direction.
‘Flesh’ sounds way more serious and aggressive in comparison to the other songs played today and it’s a reminder of the band’s heavier 2015 debut A Thousand Hands.
It’s time for a brand new, just this year released single ‘Current Affair’ and the evening is back at it’s original heavy 80s sound.
Synthesizers in ‘Situations’ get the 80s meter even higher up and together with the highly enthusiastic dancers in the front row, showing off moves I’ve never seen before in my life, Broadcast’s basement is basically transformed into a time machine.
The lead singer is constantly abusing the microphone stand and never deciding whether he prefers to stand on the ground or on the stage, but the crowd seems to enjoy his uncertainty.
It is quite an entertaining thing to watch and the band manages to keep up the same energy levels throughout the gig, without taking off their heavy leather jackets.
The gig finishes with a catchy post-punk banger ‘I Can’t Take It’ and the average sized, but very dedicated crowd seems pleased with the musical time travelling journey that has been blessed upon them.
SEXTILE is a band that performs aggressive music, that you can still very easily dance to and even though it takes a bit of time to get their vibe, after that you are hooked on the heavy synthesizer goodness and you even stop worrying about how are you going to get home through all that snow.
Words: Goda Bujaviciute
Photos: Brendan Waters
Rave Child 