Grey Hairs - Rescue Rooms (23 November 2011)

Ther Art of Noise...Grey Hairs live at the Rescue Rooms - Photo by Paul Klotschkow

It may only be their second show, but you can hardly tell as Grey Hairs launch in to a taught, tight and and dogged set that left your ears feeling like they had been touched-up in all manner of inappropriate ways.

The band, made up of local music-types from other Notts bands such as Fists, The Cult of Dom Keller, Kogumaza and Paper Plane Crash, line-up on stage like they are just about to get down to a rehearsal and not play to a hundred or so people in the Red Room of the Rescue Rooms. They stand around in circle type formation and play to themselves as much they do to the audience.

The vocals are deliberately murky and kept low in the mix, and sound as if they are trying to fight their way through a wall of static. It works perfectly though as this band seem to be all about creating fuzzy textures and grainy dynamics. Imagine taking a photograph and photocopying it, then photocopying the photocopy and repeating this process until all that you are left with a is a distorted black and white image with only a faint outline of the original photo. This is how Grey Hairs sound.

It’s heavy, but not heavy in a ‘metal’ sense of the word, but more in the physical, crushing way you feel the music pushing down on you. This is all down to the sheer volume and raucous playing of the band. The pummeling fuzzed-out bass holds court laying down the foundations, leaving room for the guitar to lay waste to whatever hearing you have left; playing with swagger, flair and firing out riffs like it’s still 1991 and Sub Pop have got a couple of A&R men are in the room. Behind all this is the Grey Hairs secret weapon - the drums. The driving force for the whole thing; they crash and smash creating one almighty racket, and are the glue that holds the whole thing together

Yes, it’s unabashedly grunge, with the slabs of guitar often reminiscent of Mudhoney, yet you could see them lining up alongside more recent punky types such as Male Bonding, especially with their skittering energy. This is the art of noise and what a glorious sound it is.

Grey Hairs played in the Red Room of the Rescue Rooms on Wednesday 23 November 2011.

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Original Review for LeftLion.