LIVE FROM THE PIT: Die Spitz and Aerial Salad

No one knows anarchy like punk-rock Texans DIE SPITZ. As vocalist/guitarist Ellie Livingston struts the stage in her scarlet cowboy boots, she roots the all-consuming doom-laden riffs that lash the crowd with fast, uncontrollable energy. With their latest album, Something To Consume, the band chose carnage over composure, opting for sieging a supermarket in the music video for Throw Yourself To The Sword. Whilst there are no weapons present within the cavernous depths of Manchester’s Gorilla, the energy is red-hot, and the ordinary becomes infatuated with the need to revolt.  We push the pit wider with supports AERIAL SALAD. 

In their hometown, the crowd for Manchester Brit-pop revivalists AERIAL SALAD watches on with much enthusiasm for their supersonic sound. As the three-piece charm with their brutish punk, with that sublime modern edge we saw within MILITARIE GUN and HIGH VIS, they go down well with the nostalgic older crowd. Much like their nineties ruckus, they are the perpetrators of a small but violent push pit, swinging their teenage compadres with a wicked grip.  With limbs strewn all over the stage (in a boogie way, and not a horror film way), the band took down the patriarchy and any oppressive authority that stood in their way with gigantic vocals and woozy trilling riffs. 

Self-described as “audible counter culture”, there was a deep understanding in AERIAL SALAD’s lyrics, evergreen in their OASIS-style sensibilities. With DIE SPITZ, they feel like an odd couple, but they feel they understand each other as two bands that feel not within their own time. 

In some ways, this is what makes DIE SPITZ so alluring; as they grace the stage, they make the crowded room completely silent.  When they begin to play, they seem to have mastered the art of making their riffs sound excruciatingly primal, the same rip-roaring organic feeling that BLACK SABBATH did with the creation of Master Of Reality. Whilst comparisons can be drawn - as easily as four young, talented people from Austin, Texas can be - the deafening hype around the band is clearly demonstrated in their technical capability on stage. 

Admittedly timid in the first few songs around the devastating Manchester crowd, they grow to become firmly acquainted in the no-barrier venue. It’s a strange crowd, split down the middle almost generationally. There are just as many young faces as the greebo oldies, who make themselves known in the middle of the mosh. Moreso when the many female and queer-presenting people are pulled to the front of the audience when the band plays Riding With My Girls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDVB01l-V_vAE&v=VB01l-V_vAE

Without understanding its complex and storied history, it’s refreshing to see that proggy doom metal sound become cool and approachable, especially to a young TURNSTILE t-shirted crowd. In the context of the Baltimore-based band, it feels like Will Yip’s doing, as he had a hand in producing both Something To Consume and Never Enough, released in a matter of months of each other.

This only makes the crowd wilder and more unruly, throwing themselves over to the stage in an act of survival. Both the tour manager and the security were working overtime to get everyone on their feet safely. It’s DIE SPITZ that maestros this carnage, launching themselves with instruments in hand just as much as the audience.  The riffs, whilst swelteringly simplistic, are sludgy and raw, filling the air with unpredictability. The band members saute around instruments, giving their moments to connect with their crowd. With liquid courage, they break their nerves with a true display of that rockstar mentality.  

Broken up by their more melancholy work, they demand much-needed breathing room in between the ferocity. In comparison to their livelier sound, it feels like night and day. Grungy serenades feel entirely alien in their set. It’s hard to tell if this was entirely cohesive or needed more material that matched their latest album's energy. This is not to say it wasn’t welcomed, there’s voodoo in the murky vocals that swirls around those low-strung notes. It’s dazzling to watch as the members swap their instruments to make something frantically different. 

DIE SPITZ, taken from German as “the pointed” or “the sharp”, is on the rise. Spearheading this mesmerising new side to modern punk, they feel like the figureheads of a new revolution. At Donington, later this summer, they’ll certainly find the right crowd. Join them. 

Words: Amber Brooks

Photos: Ace Cheng