Governor's Ball | 2015

For years, the American music festival landscape was dominated by three big players: Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Lollapalooza. Recently, small upstart festivals have been giving the big three a run for their money in terms of line-up and accessibility. New York City's Governor's Ball has shaped up to be the northeast's premier summer festival.

Death from Above 1979 played Rough Trade

It's been nine years and eleven months since Canada's Death from Above 1979 released their first (and until now only) record, the heavy I'm a Woman, You're a Machine, but the long wait is finally over. The super-charged duo rolled into Brooklyn's Rough Trade locked and loaded as they delivered their monstrous riffs and blasted drums beats into one of the band's more intimate shows in quite some time.

Death from Above 1979 - "Government Trash"

On September 9, dance-punks Death from Above 1979 will finally release their long-awaited sophomore album, The Physical World.

Death from Above 1979 played the Williamsburg Waterfront

For anyone who braved the blistering heat yesterday, Death from Above 1979 made one of their few non-festival appearances on their "reunion tour" (the bands term, not mine) well worth the risk of heat stroke. The Canadian noise/dance-punk duo returned with just as much prowess as one could have hoped as they delivered ear wrenching blasts of power heavy tracks that made so many hope for their return in the first place. The two picked up right where they left off, foot stomping rock and roll with heavy bass and screeching vocals that pack quite the punch. With no new material to work with, it was all the hits the fans wanted and then some. The duo drew heavily from their much loved debut full length, but added key tracks from their EPs for all the die hard fans who have been waiting the past six years to hear these songs live again. The motorcycle growl of Jesse Keller's bass mixed with his MSTRKRFT style electronics are matched by Sebastian Grainger's dismantling attack on drums that seem to make noise rock as accessible as possible as they bring radio friendly metal riffs, hard punk vocals, and double kick-drum to the fore front of their sound. Each track has as much groove as it does noise and anarchy yet somehow the band is really able to capture real sound and emotion. As the set began to come to a close (when a band only has one full length a show can only go for so long) more and more calls for "one more record" made it even more apparent that fans are not done with these guys. Favorites "Blood on your Hands" and an extended "Romantic Rights" sealed the deal and proved these guys can still rock really hard and could keep this going for quite some time before actually needing to record new material. But if they do go down that path, there are plenty of people ready and willing to listen.

Setlist:
01. Turn it Out
02. Dead Womb
03. Going Steady
04. Too Much Love
05. Cold War
06. Black History Month
07. Go Home, Get Down
08. Girl U R Lovely
09. Little Girl
10. You're a Woman, I'm a Machine
11. Blood on Our Hands
12. Pull Out
13. We Don't Sleep at Night
14. Romantic Rights
15. Do It
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16. Losing Friends
17. If We Don't Make It, We'll Fake It