The Blood Brothers / Kill Me Tomorrow / The Chromatics

The Chromatics were docile and moody, bridging ambient guitar noise with a simple drum-machine beat backdrop. While much more laidback than later performances, the band still impressed with their knack for off-set melodies and avant-noise sensibility in a minimalist art punk sort of way. San Diego trio Kill Me Tomorrow followed, bringing their unique guitar, bass and electronic drums with force. Offbeat in the best of ways, the band had punk attitudes and noisy, almost industrial tunes, with boy/girl shared vocals. Consensus was that KMT were much better sounding and way more interesting live than on record. The night, however, belonged to much-anticipated return of the speed-freak, fuel injected noisemakers the Blood Brothers. In short, this band is a burst of energy that is much appreciated and also unparalleled in the heavy music scene. Their sassy, toe-tapping screams were on fire from the get-go. The set consisted of a lot of new songs, which are set to appear on their forthcoming album Crimes. Despite no one in the audience knowing the songs, they still inspired people to jump from the speakers and thrash. Newer songs have the same signature blasts of melody and manic that characterised the previous album Burn, Piano Island, Burn. Some new favourites include "Peacock Skeleton with Crooked Feathers" with its irresistibly contagious chorus that highlights the nerdy vocal duels between Jordan Billie and Johnny Whitney. This, my friends, is "sassy-core" at its finest.