PULLED APART BY HORSES
Electrowerkz, London | November 12th
If you like sticking it to the man of a Tuesday night, you’d do well to beat watching Pulled Apart by Horses roadtest a load of new songs written for their forthcoming third album in the Elektrowerkz warehouse space, Islington. What’s more, tonight’s show is a benefit gig with all proceeds going to housing and homeless charity Shelter, so we get the additional good vibes provided by helping those let fortunate than ourselves through the medium of rocking out.
And what’s even more, tonight’s support slot comes from Leeds-scene supergroup Menace Beach – a band led by mainstays Ryan Needham and Liza Webster but with a revolving door line-up featuring the likes of Rob John Lee from tonight’s headliners, Nestor from Sky Larkin and Matt from Hookworms. Their dreamy, pretty grunge songs are at times a world away from the bangers that we’ll hear from their fellow citizens an hour later, but excellent nonetheless.
Pulled Apart by Horses have been taking a break from playing live since late 2012 when they finished touring second album Tough Love. This is their only headline show of 2013, which goes some way to explaining why tickets sold out within two hours after going on sale a few weeks back. For a fairly fucking heavy band, it’s testament to their appeal that they’ve gained a loyal fanbase substantial enough to sell this place out so quickly despite taking themselves so firmly off the radar.
They waste no time in reminding us why we love them as they aggressively open with one of their oldest, and most slamming numbers, E = MC Hammer. They couldn’t have asked for a more receptive crowd to test new material on. From the moment the first of many huge riffs drops tonight, the room is a total mess of enthusiastic, flying bodies (there’s later a circle pit that consumes the whole room during High Five, Swan Dive, Nose Dive, and guitarist James Brown crowd surfs through the entirety of a new song). It’s almost as if they’ve never been away, save for lead singer/guitarist Tom Hudson’s new hippie look; he’s sporting an interesting tie-dye t-shirt and has grown hair half-way down to his arse (he later jokes that it was waiting for his hair to get to its new length that caused their year-long hiatus). The look works: he cuts a positively insane figure as he flails his mane and yelps choruses about things like about reigning Sabbaths and riding mammoths.
They play V.E.N.O.M second, before we hear the first new one of the night – an excellent, real nasty, droney tune. Actually, the slower grooves seem to be a feature of the new stuff; their penultimate number tonight might have the best slow stoner riff we’ve heard since the last time Fu Manchu put out a decent record. If the plan for this evening was to whet some appetites then they’ve undoubtedly succeeded. We can’t wait to hear these tunes again, and to find out if they manage to capture the heaviness of the material demoed tonight on record. It all sounds rad.
Inevitably, the set ends with a brutal rendition of fan favourite I Punched a Lion in The Throat, complete with Tom being crowd surfed all the way out of the entrance to the band room at the song’s end. It’s a triumph. And as one final treat, we have a beer and listen to Blood Red Shoes do a DJ set in the next room, during which they play Refused, The Bronx and Hot Snakes. All in all then, it’s a pretty perfect night, and one which we’re sure will have deservedly raised a generous sum for an excellent cause.
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Words: Jack Bolter
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