A Place To Bury Strangers

It was interesting to get a close-up look at the form of a band that has defined the noise of the new century, through a musical language where post-punk, noise-rock, shoegaze and psychedelia collide after a brakeless sprint. We had the chance to do so in the always-excellent setting of the Monk, on a cool spring Monday that drew a solid crowd of fans to the Roman venue.

Oddly enough, it wasn't neurotic riffs or walls of sound that opened the evening, but a single musician (as always, masked), Canadian-born but California-based Cameron Findlay, aka Kontravoid, a name fairly well known to fans of the more modern strains of a certain electro body music. He delivered a set of barely forty minutes, all mighty synth blasts and gritty vocals that, over time, come off rather flat (this remains the least thrilling side of the project, even in the studio).

Meanwhile, a crowd had gathered at the APTBS merch stand, where, alongside a juicy stash of vinyl and CDs, fans could pick up t-shirts, lighters, earplugs (pretty much mandatory!) and a long line of Death By Audio pedals (a guitar-effects brand founded back in 2002 by Oliver Ackermann, the New York combo's longtime frontman).

Within minutes a haze of smoke wraps around the stage, the American trio takes their places, and with "Deadbeat" Ackermann immediately brutalizes and wrecks a guitar, making it clear that the years may pass but the attitude never changes.

Rounded out by Sandra Fedowitz (drums) and John Fedowitz (bass), the band doubles down, digging into a now-enormous back catalogue: four tracks from the classic "Exploding Head", three from the recent "Synthesizer", two ("Hold On Tight" and "Ring My Bells") from "See Through You", and finally one track apiece from other releases, including "Song For Girl From Macedonia" taken from the brand-new "Rare And Deadly", a solid compilation of old experiments that had sat locked in a drawer for years.

Amid infernal strobe lights and rivers of feedback, the show takes on the shape of a perfect magnetic storm, the kind that leaves you breathless, sweeping away both the bodies and the souls in the room - because before getting anywhere near A Place To Bury Strangers live, it's always wise to take the proper precautions. Noise shaman Oliver Ackermann thus completed his ritual, and we walked out dazed and, once again, satisfied, since the sonic vortex of his creation delivered, as ever, a cathartic experience.

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