Show Me The Body + Militarie Gun + Red Mar + Haavat

Show Me The Body grace Norwich with their unique blend of noise-rock, hardcore punk and hiphop and they’re everything you’d expect: confrontational and abrasive (in the best possible ways).

Local hardcore punk band Haavat open the evening with their distinctive D-beat noise. Reminiscent of hardcore classics, their songs are short and brutal. There’s force of tremendous size. The percussionist is remarkable, driving the music forwards while vocalist Katri Chapman snarls in Finnish down the microphone. It easily sets the volume level for the evening with fellow noise-merchants Red Mar on next. Initially they seem a bit of a stranger fit in the broader lineup. They sometimes stretch into post-hardcore, but really, it’s not that adjacent to hardcore. Though despite that there’s still ferocity in spades. It’s noisy, controlled and restrained, and despite the slow builds of sound they retain the audience’s dedicated attention. Emotion is funneled at the will of the band. They communicate with each other and there’s a level of naturalness which combines with clinical precision, ones to watch in the future for certain.

Militarie Gun, all the way from Los Angeles, are slower and more melodic and emotive than typical hardcore groups. Initially making a name for themselves by bringing a more emotional sound to what has predominantly been a heavy and fast genre. Singer Ian Shelton paces the stage throughout the set, while his band’s tight wound rhythms and melodic guitars spin around the emotive performance. With the penultimate performance of their latest single ‘Pressure Cooker’, they really show their capacity for creating hooks. It’s anthemic, an insatiable chorus sits along a groovy drumbeat. There’s poppy-ness, but strength and a punk attitude.

Brooklyn’s Show Me The Body, initially made themselves famous on the back of their visceral noise and explosive live shows and it’s made clear why this evening. Lead singer, Julian, is armed with an electronic banjo, while bassist, Harlan, switches between the bands machine noises on a pedal/keyboard construction. With the percussion, bass, banjo and synth-sound box, they make a formidable racket. Bringing together hip-hop, hardcore and noise rock, the band have created a sound that is forceful and violent. Within minutes of their set starting, the entire floor of Voodoos Showroom is shaking, one fan climbing up into the venue’s rafters above the surging crowd.

They’re impressively tight and obviously great musicians. A whistle stop tour of their discography really highlights their talent as writers too. It’s harsh and defiant. There’s no chat, there’s just the sound.

As possibly one of the sweatiest gigs to have graced the venue and also one of the loudest. They also show that a long set isn’t necessary to make a set good. The band finish 36 minutes after coming on, the perfect length to say what they want to say and with the hypnotic nature of the performance, the time isn’t even noticeable. They demonstrated exactly what live music can potentially be.