While the Camden Street venue of Whelans was yet again packed with a melange of Dublin musos, this doesn’t really bother Brian Borcherdt and Graham Walsh, AKA Holy Fuck, as they hop onto the stage to take their positions behind a bewildering amount of electronic equipment and synthesisers.
Hailing from Canada, Holy Fuck bear little similarity to the sounds their countrymen have become famous for peddling over the last few years. Their sound is a punishing, slightly industrial yet melodic electro-rock with an emphasis on analogue equipment and on tour they are joined by a live bass player and drummer.
While there have been grumblings in the blogosphere of this country - and in some of the English papers - that Holy Fuck live are not as pulsatingly ear-splitting as one might hope, the set at Whelans is a high-energy, bouncing, poppy, sweaty occasion where they jam in most of their album and EP with tracks like Royal Gregory, The Pulse and their big crowd-pleaser, Lovely Allen.
What looks like a real mix of a crowd are dancing like maniacs in parts and both frontmen seem to be thoroughly enjoying the set as they rhythmically bob their heads and jab away at their multitude of buttons and switches, the funniest of these being the comically large red button on display at the front of one keyboard, used to great effect in neary every track.
Because of their limited amount of material, this show was never going to go on for too long but after just over an hour, and an encore of two songs, the sweaty pair thank the whooping crowd and scuttle off.
Although tonight was a success, it's also clear that this is a band that would really wow a festival, with the feelgood factor they emanate and the mesmerising beats they serve up; tonight's climactic techno foray being a great example of how to whip up the punters before finishing. Definitely a band to check out live and I'd imagine in a festival atmosphere they would blow you away.
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