LIVE REVIEW: Ithaca @ Rough Trade, Bristol
One one side of a wall, people milling around looking to expand their vinyl collection; on the other, a stage barely six inches high and feedback speakers perched on empty beer kegs. Rough Trade isn’t your average gig venue, but it’s perfect for a show like this; a free entry concert with an in-store signing after and the last night of a short headline run from London-based bruisers ITHACA, who have brilliant new album They Fear Us now under their belt.
To open, local outfit LIGHTNING SHARKS, who give the crowd present a chaotic and heavy post-hardcore that takes GLASSJAW and throws in a dash of THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN for good measure. Alongside this nucleus are the occasional elements of chug and groove implemented, and even when the guitarist breaks a string (no, not that one), they improvise, adapt and overcome. We Are Not Equals, People brings a feel of RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE into their sound and they even debut a new song – Brandelina’s Law – which they were planning on saving for their performance at ArcTanGent three weeks from this show. There’s not much in the way of presence or charisma from the five piece, but their sound is exceptionally promising and the strength of the songs pull them through; a bright future awaits for the band recently dubbed ‘The Bristolian BOTCH‘.
Rating: 7/10
As soon as ITHACA hop up on stage, a punter to the right says “hey, the dress is fixed!”. Ah yes, during this tour singer Djamilia Azzouz suffered an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction, but there are no mishaps tonight; just big vibes and even bigger tunes. Decked in the outfits that all five wear on the They Fear Us album cover, what follows is forty minutes of utter carnage, with a few songs from debut record The Language Of Injury making an appearance alongside the new material. Cremation Party brings some much needed movement on the floor and the title track from their first album stands up well, no mean feat given the jump in quality between the releases. In addition, the stage banter is strangely wholesome; when was the last time you were asked what you were having for dinner in the middle of a gig?
Sadly, the clean and ethereal vocals from Djamilia are lost in the mix quite a bit throughout, which could be seen as expected given the venue limitations, but one of the most impressive elements of They Fear Us was the band’s ability to turn on a sixpence from all out fury to flowing serenity without missing a beat, so it’s a real shame. Additionally, ITHACA could have gone on longer than forty minutes, but the addition of the in-store signing curtails that and one must assume that there are bigger dates in the works for later this year/early 2023. That said, these factors don’t come close to derailing a thunderous show all round, which closes with the title track of They Fear Us – “bow before your blood!” is a candidate for best mosh call of 2022 – and the pummelling Impulse Crush. With that, the band depart to begin adding their signatures to record covers, but they’ve left Bristol in the dust of the hot August weather all the same.
Rating: 8/10
Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Bristol from Serena Hill Photography here:
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