RAAVE TAPES have been touring the country in support of their new single, so, I left my normal Friday night routine at home and got down to The Foundry for some seriously bizarre shenanigans.
Bad Sext were the first band up, and I still can’t pigeonhole them into a single genre. Pop rock with a mix of everything else you can imagine, the band opened with ‘Tinder Date’, a satirical and cynical look at the modern dating scene.
When they weren’t already tapping into our Millennial suffering, it was our obsessions. I never realised how much we needed a song that articulated an entire generation’s fascination with serial killers featuring a melodica solo. Singing “Ted Bundy has sex with dead bodies” in public may finally be socially acceptable.
Halfway through the set, the band’s tearaway pants came flying off, revealing matching skirts with BAD and SEXT diamanted across the rear. The crowd reaction confirmed these will need to be made available as merch someday.
Bad Sext were pretty clear on their target demographic, if you can relate to the title of their final song, ‘Existential Crisis Nap’, you are in it. “On no, I’ve gone and slept through the whole afternoon” is an unfortunate summary of many a lazy Sunday. A lazy Sunday you can spend listening to Bad Sext’s four song EP.
Next it was a mind bending journey through a fairly wild acid trip with Great Sage. The band was decked out in matching shimmering silver tunics, like a renaissance fair had slammed full speed into a 70s cult science fiction film.
On stage they were joined by a masked alien, who half way through the set, revealed a blue face underneath. As it appeared he was about to attack the band, the inter-dimensional being sat down and began reading a newspaper.
Busting out otherworldly tunes galore, Great Sage kicked the traditions of synth pop aside by incorporating some jazz flute action. You can check it all out on their single ‘Something Unknown’ and embrace Great Sage’s weird and enthralling beats.
RAAVE TAPES took it in the absolute opposite direction with their signature electro punk dance sound. There was nothing extra-terrestrial about their punchy lyrics and churning dance floor guitar licks.
‘SUDS’ was where things started to kick into gear and was followed up by ‘Flexxx’. You know it is serious when the song title needs three x’s at the end. Mix in a cheeky cover of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s ‘Heads Will Roll’, a certified dance floor filler on its own, and it was only a matter of time before things got hectic.
In the last three songs I got everything I wanted, including a proper mosh pit, as the punk washed into the electro for a slam dance session. ‘Stabs’ was the appetiser before the band swung into action with their latest single ‘dancing because I’m sad’. I can’t see how a song about staying out late and dancing was at all relatable to the crowd, but they got into.
It was all capped off with ‘k bye’ as the serious fans took the line about ketamine quite seriously. The sweaty dance floor transformed into sweaty pit of death as people slammed into each other, in time with the throbbing bass line.
Here is looking forward to some more dance floor fillers and sweaty moshes from RAAVE TAPES in the future.
