Press
Weird Era
The Deaf Institute
26th January 2011

Twin Shadow//Chad Valley//Weird Era ~ The Deaf Institute ~ 26.01.11

By Chester Whelks Photos: Kitty Saros

“…they should have put on ‘Kill Bill’ or ‘Jurassic Park’ behind them…” remarks someone from over my left shoulder. In an editorial decision more befitting their set (and it transpires, the night as a whole), Weird Era opt instead for projecting Joel Schumacher’s eternal stay-of-execution-earning: ‘The Lost Boys’ across the stage. As Kiefer Sutherland and his bemulleted, undead-brethren infest Max’s video store; the PA abates, and Weird Era undertake a semi-embarrassing last minute sound check, which is laughed-off by the drummer who defiantly punches them into their set.

Weird Era’s drum propelled, twin-guitar-pronged-assault invokes a distorted squall of reverberation, amply taking the absent Bass’s place, which swells inexorably to fill every last inch of space in the Deaf Institute’s auditorium, including that section in your head reserved for bar-bill calculus & bus timetables. Either they’ve opted for volume over all else, like My Bloody Valentine to whom they bear a passing stylistic resemblance, or as indicated by the last minute preparations, the sound engineer has done them a disservice (which the soundboard’s sneeze-guard in a down-position seems to attest). Despite this affront, be it self, or sound engineer inflicted, Weird Era have enough of a guarded yet diminutively pleading undercurrent to their sonic onslaught, with enough curveball chord changes to tractor-beam your enduring interest.