Here’s video proof of why Death Grips’ Boiler Room SXSW show was one of my best of the festival. Their 32 minute set was delivered from the middle of a warehouse and it was a gut punching thrilling set which featured giant pills, MC Ride goading and inciting the audience in his rapid lunatic style, Zach Hill playing live over Skype (at least it looked/felt like it was live) and Flatlander running the show behind two big iMacs. And those big goggles? We’ve already seen the footage of that with the ‘Lock Your Hands’ video. April 29th in Whelan’s (now sold out) is going to be something else.
In a post on Hypebot I read yesterday, Robin Davey lamented the current state of the SXSW music industry festival:
And this was the problem with SXSW, everything was too preplanned, every secret show careful scripted and sponsored, and no publicity opportunity missed.
The Boiler Room performance was announced while many were in Austin for the festival a couple of days before and despite Boiler Room getting Ray Ban on board to make this Warehouse gig happen (it also featured Lunice, Skream, Baauer, Mount Kimbie and RL Grime), Death Grips’ set still felt punk as fuck in the face of all the above. That’s just how they roll.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
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