The Dirt | Hibushbire | Barbarism
Night n Day, Manchester – Friday 10th October
A week after being blasted in The Peer Hat by the wonderful TV Face I’m back to see my old friends The Dirt return to one of their favourite venues Night n Day for a celebration of their stunning second album Monkeypunch, bringing along their friends from Osaka, Japan and local political punks Barbarism. It’s a riot from the start…
As historic venues go Night n Day is up there with the best in the UK. A strong supporter of grassroots bands they never shy from giving the underdogs a chance and those bands that make it always repay their debts years later (namely Elbow as an example), and The Dirt is (are) rising, judging by the amount of people filling the place up early on for the first band Barbarism.
Manchester’s Barbarism are new to me and I’ve purposely not listened to them beforehand to make my own mind up. A short set from the quintet is a nice surprise as they have a tight unit, animated front person who is down in the audience at some point, a twin assault of guitars and some decent power punk which impresses the growing crowd at an early point which is nice to see these days. A political mix of Fugazi a la punk grunge with their own twist on noise rock. Ones to watch.
The venue is now getting rammed for the return of The Dirt and their audiences are growing. There are some familiar faces around from the underground scene including The Empty Page, [slab] and The Sewer Cats to name a few and there’s a sense of community in here all backing Jack and Sachiko in celebration of their own unique sound. For anyone who’s been around from the early days you’ll be familiar with Jack’s delivery and his none use of prompts. It’s all up there as he delivers the album introduction like a pro with “We are The Dirt, welcome to the MonkeyPunch” before thanking the crowd and queuing the drum machine for the rumbling kraut psych End Game which bounces around the air like a stealth weapon when Sachiko’s sonic arsenal kicks in. I mention unique as I can’t think of anyone creating spoken word in a punk preacher style like this, backed with swirling guitar effects that match the prole like a menacing swirl of electric, surrounding the political venom like an AI snake slithering through the crowd. Sachiko is the quiet one and speaks with her guitar, Jack is the twitching, headbanging, jumping in the air, Curtis on crystal meth madman in disguise when he’s on stage. It’s a strong set that includes Chaos and the menacing Demon Seed, mixed up a bit with old Agitator tracks such as the belting Power Junkie and energetic Crying Out Loud as a closer. It’s a lesson in spoken word from Jack at the top of his game and a lesson from Sachiko at the top of her game wringing out those effects pedals like a technical warlord who can’t be controlled. Mind boggling stuff.
Friends and sometimes neighbours of Jack and Sachiko – Hibushbire are kindly given the headline slot which will soon be returned in favour to The Dirt when they head to Japan later this year for their annual pilgrimage. They put the P into psych before they even hit a note! The band consist of Chang Chang, Tetsuji, AOI and Kohei who all kick up a noise that’s as heavy and intricate as it gets. With most jams coming from their 2023 album Magical Metamorphosis Third Eye it’s like a never ending psych freak out, clever as fuck and mesmerising. They guy on bongos is a sight to see and plays like Animal through the whole set. It’s psych, metal, punk, space rock and distorted pop all rolled into one bag of mushrooms and when they announce “this is the last song” I swear we’re not leaving. Think Hey Jude or Rocking In The Free World entering the world of The Mighty Boosh and I’m only half way there. An interesting mind bending experience all the way from Osaka. Top as fuck.
Barbarism – Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram
The Dirt – Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp
Hibushbire – Official | Facebook | Bandcamp | Twitter | Instagram
All photos by Pete Rooney Photography.
Words by Wayne Carey, Reviews Editor for Louder Than War. His author profile is here
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