The brutal Dublin 3-piece noise makers make an incredible impression on the festival.
The Purple Turtle is far from full as we get over for Bucket. They have drawn the short straw of going up against Adult DVD, one of the big names on everyone’s lips today. We skipped that one knowing we would be seeing them at The Bullingdon in October, and who knows when we would get a chance to catch Bucket again? All present got treated to one of the most extraordinary sets of the festival.
This was less a music performance than an attempt to exorcise demonic spirits out of two guitars and a set of drums. Bucket are supporting Knocked Loose soon in Dublin and Belfast, and might well be one of the few bands around who could actually make the Americans seem normal, instead of the extraordinarily heavy offering that they are. Whilst setting up Cian Dahdouh, guitarist and vocalist, wants more volume on the guitars. He keeps asking until he is told it doesn’t go any higher. Given the opportunity, Bucket would be CRAZY LOUD. A band to not so much hear in your ears but feel the vibrations slowly destroying your body. Bassist Emmet McNamee is also inclined to crank it up.
Most of their set comes from two EPs, the most recent only dropping a couple of weeks before AYL? took place. ‘DNB’ is a sonic assault of disparate elements that collide together like a particularly intense mosh pit. It is a thrilling start. ‘Hash Browns’ is just as intense, though on record reveals their sense of humour with a bizarre sample of an American going on about potatoes.
‘Nonsense’ has a sharp, rapid drum pattern. Korey Thomas is sheer intensity behind the kit. Dandouh has a particularly large metal slide always close to hand that he frequently uses during the set to torture out various noises from his guitar.
While Emmet McNamee is a fairly consistent stage presence, Dandouh is a livewire. He is constantly holding the guitar in awkward positions, leaping through the air, trying to play the guitar behind his back. His microphone spends a large part of the set firmly in his mouth.
At his most extreme Dandouh puts down the guitar whilst the rhythm section unleash industrial levels of noise. He wraps the microphone wire around his neck, briefly mimicking hanging.
He then falls to the floor, resembling some kind of music gimp on the edge of asphyxiation. Bucket do not mess about. Do not doubt their intensity or their noise making ability. Like Truck Violence last year they have phenomenal stage presence, time will tell if they have a cult band future or something larger. This was one of the defining sets of the day.
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