Death From Above 1979
FYF Fest
Sept. 3
Death From Above 1979 was easily one of the biggest hardcore/punk bands at FYF Fest this year, and judging by the energy of the crowd and the sheer number of people wearing T-shirts featuring the band’s logo, it’s easy to understand why. The two-man band made up of Jesse F. Keeler (bass, keyboard) and Sebastien Grainger (drums, vocals) put on the biggest, most high-energy show of the festival.
The band played hard, fast crowd favorites such as “Dead Womb,” “Pull Out” and “Going Steady,” but showed that it could also get the crowd to sway to relatively more mellow songs such as “Black History Month” and “Do It.” Overall, the selection of songs played was a nice mix of popular singles and lesser-known B-sides.
Unfortunately, the band had some serious technical issues onstage. As Grainger explained, while everyone in the audience could hear the band, the band members could not hear themselves playing. Although this didn’t stop them from rocking, it did cause some serious issues.
Not only did the band stop for extended periods of time between songs, which ultimately limited the total amount of time they played, but at one point Keeler’s bass had a horrible feedback issue which caused a loud painful sound to emanate from the speakers and left audience members’ ears ringing.
For the most part, these technical issues didn’t stop the crowd from enjoying the music immensely. People were moshing thoroughly, even upwards of 100 feet from the stage.
The energy and stamina of the crowd was an amazing feat for any show, but it was especially incredible given the conditions at the main stage during the band’s set. The stage was set up on top of a large dirt patch that had been drying out in the sun all day. Each time someone moved, a huge amount of dust was kicked up. Multiply that effect by how many people were at the show, and the result was a massive dust cloud, which covered the crowd throughout the concert. Many fans had to resort to turning their T-shirts into makeshift bandannas.
The band members, perhaps because of the sound issues they faced, were fairly talkative, especially in comparison to their performance at Coachella. While this did mean that they played fewer songs overall, it was still nice to see the two members’ personalities come forth. Overall, despite several technical difficulties, the band managed to rock FYF Fest and was easily the best performance at the event.