Touché Amoré & Pianos Become the Teeth @ The Theklar, Bristol, March 26th

You can feel the difference in the air let alone atmosphere as you walk in. Outside an uncharacteristically (though it€™s starting to get to be) glorious March day is settling into a beautiful night, Venus visibly hanging from the Cheshire Cat smile of the moon. Inside the converted boat that is Theklar, as you delve into its depths and step into where the stage is, the contrast of the cool evening air and the thick humid sweatbox behind the cabin door is impressive. As we enter Pianos Become the Teeth have started their set, having completely missed openers Apologies, I Have None due to venturing from the valleys to Bristol and the ridiculous decision on the time keeping of this event. We didn€™t catch them but they€™re definitely worth looking into if you like punk rock passionately aggressive but melodic and song based. Both levels of this indoor boat show are full and the heat left from the day, the lights, the electricity and the gathered bodies make it almost uncomfortable to even stand. However, Pianos Become the Teeth€™s post-hardcore meets post-rock washes over the crowd and make it worth the sauna. The band deliver a solid performance of their expansive sound as each song rises and falls, and crashes. http://youtu.be/Y8yFsB6OC2I Seemingly the entire crowd sway along in appreciation and scattered through these are a select few screaming the lyrics right back at the band. Clearly developing a dedicated die hard already, with their taking the current trend in hardcore for passion and expansive sounds to its logical post-rock conclusion, there€™s a bright hope for this five piece. I€™m guessing the €˜looks like Buzz Osborne from the Melvins but blonde€™ chap at the front agrees too, or else those €˜shrooms he had clearly been taking were something to really write home about, once he was done touching the music in the air like it was massaging his fingers, of course. Before the shamefully early stage time, Touché Amoré come to the stage and humbly set up themselves, sound check, back and forth with the sound guys and the crowd, then scream into the mics just to make sure they€™re right. Then the aforementioned stage time arrives with the band already stage based they kick things off with Method Act and immediately the atmosphere is electric as the crowd as a whole race for the front to scream every single word as they throw each other around and fight for the mic that vocalist Jeremy Bolm regularly offers out to his audience whilst he continues to shout like he doesn€™t need amplification. http://youtu.be/H6rGV5p8A2c Given the notoriously short lengths of their tracks the band perform them as collections, bleeding one into another with enough energy and passion that soon all five are drenched in sweat. Most notably Jeremy Bolm who charismatically throws himself around the stage and €˜performs€™ his lyrics. The ferocity with which each person on the floor pushes themselves to the front shows this as a band with an avid following and an audience that love this band. Whether represent with the flagrant disregard for the bars stern €˜crowdsurfing is strictly prohibited€™ notices, or in the case of one bespectacled die hard crashing the stage to steal the mic and scream the lyrics himself arms around band before throwing himself to the crowd below. Dedication. To. The. Bit. The band are as equally enthusiastic about the crowd, visibly and verbally blown away by playing a foreign country somewhere they€™ve not played before and have an audience sing back every word, then demand an encore. Noticeably humble and appreciative of their acceptance. Then like the songs and the full lengths themselves, it€™s over. 19 songs and the crowd still want more, even given the fair share of new and old already displayed to them. Despite some bad organisation (the gig finished at half 9, I mean come on Theklar, what were you thinking? Fuck your club night!), the band delivered a staggering and passionate performance.