The Death Set @ The Gargoyle, March 23, 2009

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If a noise rock band plays and no one is around to hear it, do they really make a sound? 
 
We may never know, but The Gargoyle in St. Louis got really close to finding out with their recent show highlighting The Death Set.  Though the East Coast group has toured worldwide in promotion of their sole LP of the same name (released on Ninja Tune last year), the circumstances of the show itself would prove to test the enthusiasm of incoming fans.
 
The venue's doors opened nearly an hour and a half late, leaving fans to wander around for multiple smoke breaks, or even worse, turn around and never return once the doors finally opened.  Thankfully, I came prepared to pass the time, but readily admit thinking about how much longer I was going to wait before just deciding to call it a night.  Once the doors finally opened, the wait was compounded by FOUR opening bands still taking their full time for sets.  (On a side note, Totally Michael seemed to be the most entertaining of the bunch in a Blink-182 meets Girl Talk kind of way.)
 
Knowing the venue's strict curfew, the odds were that this night wasn't going to end well, and with each passing band the crowd began to dissipate, leaving an already small group thinned out to less than 30 people by the time The Death Set finally made it onto the stage.
 
By this time, the group barely had even a half hour before the venue's curfew kicked in.  But seeing how Worldwide delivers 18 tracks in a running time of barely 25 minutes, they were one band that could definitely capitalize on the circumstances.  
 
On recording, The Death Set's sound can be loosely described as a volatile fusion of electronic and hip-hop samples with aggressive guitar attacks, but in person, The Death Set relied less on the samples and seemed more akin to a hardcore skate punk band.  Possibly due to co-founding member Beau Velasco opting out on touring and contributing only to the recording and production processes, this left other co-founding member, Johnny Siera, to direct the tone of the show.  

Throwing on his black shades, Siera flashed a silver-capped grin, mumbled some greeting and then wasted no time launching into their set with duo guitars setting up shredding waves of feedback.  The band (playing as a trio on tour) took their turns diving out into the moshing crowd and spent equal time lurching and writhing on the floor.

In person, The Death Set seems perfectly willing to trade in the intricacies (and arguably melody) of their recordings for loud and spastic aggression to fuel the energy and enjoyment of the performance.  In fact, I honestly couldn't even tell you what was on their set list as the vocals were completely indistinguishable through all the feedback.  (The only song I recognized was "Intermission," only because of the unmistakable "the muthaf---ing Death Set" line throughout it.)  To some degree, the band and their music were ugly and completely in your face, and I'm guessing that's exactly how Siera and the band wanted it.  Regardless, it seemed to be the perfect outlet for a crowd that had previously been frustrated, tired, and angry, and allowed them to let out all of that pent-up aggression in the mosh pit.
 
Eventually the lights came on and The Death Set stopped briefly to hear security announcing that the show was over.  In light of how the night had been up until their truncated performance, an early exit could have either been the cap to an already frustrating experience and I braced myself for the worst (this was the home of the infamous Girl Talk taser incident).  But in a nod to their skate-punk spirit, Siera just put his head back down and dived back into another flurry of songs.  And even though there wasn't much a crowd left by the end of the night, they finally seemed happy at this point.
 
A lot went wrong that evening and it's still even debatable to me whether the night, as a whole, was a positive or negative experience.  But at least for that brief half hour The Death Set made it a positive one.
 
(Bonus question: What's your worst concert experience?)