Prong

Last night was busy for a Wednesday night down the Waterfront, what with The Buzzcocks downstairs, but it’s Prong playing in the studio that’s the reason I’d left the house. Upstairs the crowd was, well, thin, but I guess that’s what you get in a city with multiple choice answers to the question “is there anything good going on Wednesday?” And at least I can get to the front.

In the opening slot were local hardcore heroes Back Down or Die, who made it totally worthwhile for the pre 8pm early birds. I made sure to get there early, because I love this band. I love watching them, I love hearing them, I love their scent… ahem, anyway, the reason I offer this information up so candidly is that it’s a love that gets more and more justified after every performance, and especially after one like this. Tighter than a Chapelfield parking space, and catchier than a glue-covered baseball glove, they played to a crowd of fewer people than they deserved, and they absolutely smashed it regardless. That’s how it’s done, people.

Next up were Aussie shirtless super-soakers King Parrot, who incite the crowd through a mixture of thrash-laden screaming, and suspicious smelling water. Luckily I always wear a wet suit under my ripped jeans and faded T for just these sort of G G Allin-esque moments, and was able to see it for the cajoling-showmanship that it was. Frontman Matthew “Youngy” Young didn’t stop there in his quest for crowd participation, and resorted at one point to physically corralling the front row in to a pit-formation using the mic lead as a makeshift lasso, and these are the correct actions one should be taking when fronting a thrashy, grindy, explosion of a band like KP. Definitely one to see if you like your music ferocious and slightly unhinged.

Finally, it was time for Prong, so let’s do the context thing. Prong were formed in America in 1986, and for ten years frontman Tommy Victor and friends produced a sound that, over five or six albums, merged hardcore with thrash, industrial, and whatever else they felt like experimenting with. Life was good for Prong, touring with Pantera and Sepultura, and, unknowingly at the time, influencing people like Korn’s Jonathan Davis, and NIN’s Trent Reznor, until their flame burnt out in 1996. They reformed a few times with various line-ups over the late naughties/early, er, teenies(?), and have now returned once more with new album, X (No Absolutes).