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Parts & Labor [Live] @ Star & Garter, Manchester
Tuesday 17th February 2009 February 20, 2009, 07:50 PM Views: 378
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 Having released my favourite album of 2008 in the criminally undiscovered Receivers, Parts & Labor returned to my home city of Manchester to play the club I know so well, having shaken my ass there many Friday and Saturday nights. Interestingly I have never shaken said ass to the sounds of Parts & Labor, despite the club’s main DJ being present this evening. I guess this gives a clue as to Parts & Labor’s sound, as they are hardly mellow or lethargic. The reason for them being so difficult to move to (even foot tapping is overly ambitious), is that they possess convulsive machine gun drumming, that is even more irregular live. It’s bolstered by Dan Friel’s additional percussion that he conjures from amongst his plethora of effects pedals and the like.
The amazing thing is that the drumming is much more regular than it used to be before the more orthodox Joe Wong replaced the Animal-like freak of nature that was Christopher R. Weingarten. Now THAT must have been one draining live experience. Not that they are devoid of energy here, far from it. In particular bassist/vocalist BJ Warshaw does a great job of blowing the room away with his constant energetic acts, culminating in his performance on top of a large speaker, which he then dismounts in a worryingly chaotic fashion. Vocalist/effects man Dan Friel also attempt to lose brain cells, in his case via constant head banging. It seems like he’ll do just about anything to add more percussion.
With the drumming now allowing the rest of the band a little more room to breathe, particularly their other relatively new addition, guitarist Sarah Lipstate, the band seep more melody into their songs than ever before, although this is slightly less evident at this gig due to the venue’s ramshackle sound system. The Star & Garter is a great little pub/night club, but it doesn’t work as well as a gig venue, certainly not for music so replete with nuance as Parts & Labor’s. “The Gold We’re Digging” from 2007’s Mapmaker is a good example of this occasional loss of melodic traces. Dan Friel’s sublime effect pedal ditty that makes the song around 1 minute in is sadly a little lost in the noise that the rest of the band produce. Despite this, Receivers anthems such as “Nowheres Nigh”, “Fractured Skies”, and the awesome “Wedding in a Wasteland”, soar as high as you’d expect a noise rock version of Husker Du to soar. It’s their love of noise of all sounds/sounds of all noise that no doubt makes Parts & Labor an acquired taste for many, but both this and their firm-to-the-point-of-concrete grasp of melody that make them a band of required taste for me. Really - what’s not to love?
The amount of great music Brooklyn is currently producing is quite frightening, but none of it surpasses the brilliance of Parts & Labor. A band that is even greater than the sum of its considerable parts, and this night we tasted the fruits of their labor for sure.
Last edited by Heron : July 19, 2009 at 02:29 PM.
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| | | | Overall Rating | | 7 | | Vocals / Lyrics | | 7 | | Musicianship | | 8 | | Production | | 5 | | Creativity | | 9 | | Lastability | | 9 | | Reviewers Tilt | | 10 |
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