News / / 15.10.12

CULT OF YOUTH

The Croft, Bristol | September 26th

Brooklyn’s Cult of Youth are quite an enigma. Described as ‘industrial acoustic punk folk’, like Death in June before them, they’re militant in their intentions of melding together elements that wouldn’t normally bond.

Sean Ragon’s command of proceedings tonight display an intense, boundless, alchemic quality. His frenetic acoustic strumming forms the backbone of much of the songs, causing his eyes to roll back into his head as if in a Peyote trance, while his Strummer-esque howl leads us through a short set largely drawing from this year’s Love Will Prevail.

Tonight they’re missing violinist Christiana Key, but keyboards and industrial flourishes in the care of Jarboe (ex-Swans) lift the neo-folk above and beyond, adding qualities that spark the listener past pre- formed expectations. The songs here take fresh angles and tangents from recorded output, particularly as the set descends in to a more experimental force, building delays and harshness to a crescendo. Unfortunately, when the crowd numbers in the tens it can be hard to infect them to the same degree as you would a full house. Nonetheless, Cult of Youth perform as if to thousands, giving it their all.

 

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Words: Philip Allen

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