Death From Above 1979 w/ Biblical at First Avenue (24 Nov 2014)

"Who was here at 7th Street? That was a long time ago…." asked drummer/singer Sebastien Grainger from Death From Above 1979, referring to their first time in the city on November 7th, 2004. A few fans shouted back "400 Bar!" (their last appearance April 12th, 2005), so there were definitely a few hardcore fans in the crowd at First Avenue last night, November 24th.

Biblical

Opening up the show was Toronto's Biblical, who played only about four tracks from Monsoon Season (New Damage Records). To clarify, there were only four breaks (which indicate stop and start of new songs). Every track they played were long and epic jams… and in total they rocked out to about 40 minutes on stage.

The band started with the very loud/metal-ish track "Second Sight", a song about not looking back on the dead. Plenty of thrashing on stage, and between songs were pre-recorded audio rip from old public domain movie.

Singer/bassist Nick Sewell asked if everyone was excited to see DFA? When a lackluster response was heard, Sewell jokingly said, "I know it's a Monday night, but you get a C minus." And with that, they continued with the jams.

Death From Above 1979 are a Canadian duo, with Sebastien Grainger doing all the lead vocals (and talking) and Jesse F. Keeler handles the guitars and occasional keyboard. The interesting thing to note is that the two actually wanted to break up in 2004, but decided to continue with their planned tour scheduled in 2005 because there were so many people that relied on them to make a living. So they carried on until they made official that DFA was no longer a band. So after nine years of various solo material as Grainger, Mountain, and MSTRKRFT, the two reunited as DFA in 2011.

Setlist

Taking the stage to piercing guitar noise and with a giant lighted DFA heads/elephant nose, the duo let First Avenue know that they have arrived.

As you can see from the setlist, every song from the latest album The Physical World, including "Right On, Frankenstein!" and "Trainwreck 1979", was played. Rounding out the rest of their set were tracks from their debut You're a Woman, I'm a Machine and some odds and ends.

Usually when bands play their entire new album, it tells me that they are very excited about the new material and wanted the audience to hear them live. From what I've heard live, the new songs are very aggressive, and it's not uncommon for people to slam dance and body surf to their songs.

The highlight of the show for me was during their encore… prior to the band coming back on stage, there were thunderous chants for "DFA! DFA!" by the audience.

After "Romantic Rights", Grainger pointed to a guy in the audience and said, "You! You're a piece of sh***!" He was referring to a couple of guys picking on some kid by taking away his hat. When they left the kid alone, Grainger added, "We're all together here, we're all having a fun time."

Grainger then added water to his drum kit and they briefly play out to "The Physical World."

Death from Above 1979 and Biblical are currently on a US tour, their next stop is Chicago, tonight.

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com)
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