December can be an odd month for gigs, the year’s coming to an end and bands get sort of reflective, as they battle for our attention amongst Christmas parties. Enter Wargasm. There’s nothing reflective about this duo, bolstered tonight with a live band. Their sound is all about grabbing you by the shoulders and shaking some sense into you. The moment is NOW! Allow me a little reflection though. I first saw them playing small packed out clubs, where it wasn’t clear where once person finished and the next began. They were raw, but devastatingly brilliant. Since then we’ve had the first official album released and the venues have got much bigger. The Ritz is not a small space, it’s never going to have that sweat-pit feel of a club where you can see the whites of Sam and Milkie eyes, but what you lose in intimacy, you gain in sheer volume of bodies generating joyous tension and heat. Not surprising considering the pace of this set. It’s like Atari Teenage Riot have taken The Prodigy & Korn, wired it all together and plugged it into a nuclear reactor. In L7’s ‘Wargasm’ they have their own intro music, which doesn’t get the crowd as fired up as it should, but as the stage is bathed in red light, they take to it and launch in with ‘Venom’, quite literally as the chorus explodes and sends shockwaves across the room, lifting the masses off their feet. It looks and sounds spectacular. “Where is my mosh pit?” Sam asks, “I need your energy” and he gets it. All of it. ‘Rage All Over’ sounds so much better live. Sam and Milkie working the front of the stage, jumping off amps as the live trio behind them belt out bludgeoning riffs and breakbeats. It’s absolute mayhem. ‘Fukstar’ sees the biggest circle pit I’ve seen in a while, with people managing somehow to still crowd surf. I swear you can feel the bounce up on the balcony where I’m safely tucked and get to see the concerned look on the security’s faces. ‘S.A.D.’ takes its cue from NIN and seems to separate the hardcore from those that are already struggling to keep the pace and taking a breather round the edges of the spring loaded dance floor. Sam straps on a fancy mirrored guitar for ‘Modern Love’ as everyone’s encouraged to wave their phones torches in the air like a fucking Bon Jovi concert. It’s bizarre, but go with it. They seem to know what they’re doing and have the crowd in the palm of their hand. Like ‘Pyro Pyro’ that preceded, it’s a more polished sound. It still kicks, but it’s like the edges have been taken off a little. ‘Sonic Dog Tag’ too leans into the Nu Metal side of things, but its chorus is fantastic with a kick that will rearrange your internal organs. The guy working the electronics looks like he’s having a seizure and where on earth do I start with the drummer‽ Let’s just say he likes getting off the stool for extra leverage. How that kit is holding up I’ve no idea. Chaos continues with the Fred Durst featuring ‘Bang Ya Head’. He’s not here thankfully, but I suspect my feelings towards Fred might be unpopular with this crowd. They go nuts! The formula is simple, play hard, fast, don’t let up. ‘Feral’ is just that and ‘Outrage’ wraps riffs around pop hooks. “Manchester this is our last song” Milkie says, “BULLSHIT” shouts a punter back as they go full Prodigy on ‘Do It So Good’. The crowd surfing intensifies as pints are launched off the balcony and the lighting tech goes batshit with the strobes. I’ve no idea why bands still insist on the encore fiasco, but that punter is of course right. They come back with ‘D.R.I.L.D.O.’ with its chant of “DRINK FUCK FIGHT LOVE”. Milkie writhing on the floor as Sam solos. It’s carnage. There’s only one way to follow and close… ‘Spit’. It’s like the entire last hour bound into a tight incendiary 3 minutes. No one wants it to finish and even the band look a bit surprised when it does. They are brilliant live, but tonight I’m going to praise the crowd more than the band. They were magnificent, the physical embodiment of, as the backdrop says 'Angry songs for sad people'. What a gig!
