LIVE REVIEW: 3TEETH @ Thekla, Bristol

Exactly three years prior to this show featuring 3TEETH, EVIL SCARECROW had taken a certain challenge to ‘sink Thekla‘ a little too seriously, causing Bristol’s famous boat to rock from side to side with the force of a sold out audience scuttling to Crabulon. The fact that the venue is now noticeably leaning to the right may or (likely) may not have something to do with this, but it’s certainly causing disorientation from the punters boarding for tonight’s event. Still, in the grand scheme of a gig, the most important factor is whether or not the bands playing are any good; and feeling seasick from a stationary vessel is less of an issue than walking away nauseous from an awful performance, of course.

Thankfully, all stomachs are instantly settled when PIG enters, albeit a good ten minutes late than originally scheduled. Dressed in fur and leather, he stalks the small stage with purpose and cuts a very imposing figure whilst the likes of Moboracy and Find It Fuck It Forget It charge out of the speakers with true menace. Backed by an impressive array of digital visuals, he captivates the room in a heartbeat and the professionalism exuded when he perfectly synchs with himself onscreen during The Chosen Few is exemplary. For a man who is pushing sixty, he still oozes a huge amount of charisma and sex appeal; simulating self-pleasure with a mic stand could easily be viewed as cringey and unnecessary, but the man known offstage as Raymond Watts makes it work and work well at that. Mind you, this is a man who has been in the business for well over thirty years, something he reminds us when he plays Juke Joint Jezebel from his days as part of KMFDM. It would be wonderful to see him play a headline show somewhere in Bristol in the not-too-distant future, because the fun that’s had over the course of the forty-odd minutes is paramount.

Rating: 8/10

By contrast, 3TEETH have no major digital visuals which is a slight let down, but given how passionate the audience are for their set, it comes nowhere near to being a massive issue. This is the second time they’ve come to the UK in support of fourth album Metawar but they’re in a full headlining role now, which they grab with both hands and boot into next week impressively. The first six songs played all come from that album, which shows the faith they have in the new material, and it pays off as they ramp up the electricity further under a flood of red lighting and strobe, broken only by Alexis Mincolla‘s luminous mohican that makes him look like an extra from Mad Max. He’s everywhere this evening as well, commanding total attention for the duration of the band’s set and delivering his vocal lines with a fury and savagery befitting of the atmosphere. “It’s great to be in a country as fucked up as ours!” he gleefully yells, a statement responded to in earnest by a room clearly adjusting to post-Brexit life with a large degree of reluctance.

The bulk of the set is made up from Metawar and 2017’s <shutdown.exe> albums – a couple of songs from the self-titled debut are thrown in for good measure – and if you were in doubt that 3TEETH aren’t growing in stature with each day that goes by, the sight of a venue singing every word to the likes of EXXXIT or Degrade should be enough to disprove this. They’ve also hit the sweet spot with the oft-temperamental sound that Thekla has to offer because they sound absolutely massive and when Pit of Fire incites one of the mosh variety on the floor, everything comes together in perfect harmony. Put simply, 3TEETH should be in bigger venues and getting far more lucrative opportunities which, given their run over here last year opening for MINISTRY, is a very bold statement to make. However, stick them in front of a RAMMSTEIN audience and they would easily go down a storm. Of course, the fact that Thekla is only half full tonight shows there is a way to go before that, but on the back of a performance like this it’s only a matter of time.

Rating: 9/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Bristol from Serena Hill Photography here: