News / / 16.07.13

Pissed Jeans

Electric Ballroom, London | July 5th

Ferocious sludge-punk maestros Pissed Jeans have been away from our stages for far too long. Back in the UK after a five year hiatus to tour their excellent 2013 album Honeys, the four piece from Pennsylvania brought deafening noise to a sold-out ballroom.

The first and only heart-warming thing about this gig (there’s definitely nothing heart-warming about Pissed Jeans’ music), was the diversity and the diehard commitment of the fans. We spotted many grey haired dudes rocking out, as well as bunch sixth formers barely out of school uniform, clinging to the bar down the front as soon as doors opened. How lovely.

Pissed Jeans themselves were far from lovely, the four-piece might have aged a bit, but calmed they most certainly have not, thrashing out their awesome brand of antagonising punk to their sweaty, noise hungry audience. While delivering taunts to the crowd, frontman Matt Korvette had a wicked glint in his eye, “Last night we played in Leeds, and I was positive that Leeds was the best and you know what, I was right. Leeds is the best. I only played here because someone told me it was Leeds. I was fucking confused alright?”

Honeys sounded even better live than recorded, if you can believe it. The sociopathic Bathroom Laughter came at twice the speed, Vain in Costume pounded so loud we think our heart stopped momentarily and the slimy menace of Cafeteria Food was enough to churn any stomach. The track which really sent everyone batshit crazy tonight though, was the King of Jeans opening track False Jesii Part 2, with crowd surfers passing overhead at a rate of one per second (props to the Electric Ballroom security staff, who were permissible to these antics, unlike so many heavies these days).

As Korvette’s insults continued – “Last night we drove past Manchester, past some Marks and Spencer’s and I thought – this is better than London.” – we couldn’t help but smile,as one thing’s for sure, no bands push your buttons quite like Pissed Jeans.

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Words: Lucie Grace

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