HEALTH – Harley Hotel & Bar, Sheffield 05/10/09

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As abruptly as HEALTH’s capitalised name is read from the page, the quartet from Los Angeles waste no time in kicking off what will become a show that’ll leave the audience of The Harley trembling at the knees for the coming winter months. Opening with the incalculably violent drums of ‘In Heat’, the first track from their most recent album, the band’s intentions for tonight’s gig are immediately made clear: no one’s going to be going to the bar between songs.

As with many noise-rock bands, distinguishing between songs can all too-often become an arduous task, resulting in a lapse of concentration as the audience begin to tire of the monotonously repetitive soundscapes. However, as HEALTH demonstrate on Get Color, and live tonight, this doesn’t always have to be the way, with each song more than capable of holding it’s own outside of the album. Songs like ‘Die Slowly’ and ‘Death+’ ironically seem to finish too quickly for the audience, all of who crave more of the wonderfully poppy synth and pounding percussion. However, just as they are left straddling the short break between songs, salivating for more of this electronic rhythm, the band break thunderously into another sample of Get Color.

Without any member of the band visibly orchestrating the direction of the songs, they somehow manage to manoeuvre through their tightly knit set with both spontaneity and direction. Throughout, this aspect of them being so in-synch with each other, yet never seeming overly rehearsed, strikes me as truly overwhelming and I continuously find myself falling into a state vacancy, owing all my senses to the band and whichever direction they choose to take me on next.

Notably refreshing is the utter individuality displayed right across the band’s members tonight. Although completely in-tune with each other’s intended direction, each musician seems to be in a different state of mind to the other. For example, at one point Duzsik can be seen attempting yet failing to play the intro to a song. With each duff note his face screws up even tighter, until eventually he slings his guitar from his shoulders, indignantly throwing it to the ground, just in time to grab the mic and scream the first line of the song. Meanwhile, the other band memebers are doing their own thing, unaware of this mini-catastrophe. Likewise, guitarist Jupiter Keyes at one point can be seen on his knees, fiercely slapping the floor with his bare hands and then pounding himself in the stomach to the drum beat. These impulsive and unconstrained actions serve as hooks for the audience to grapple onto during this tireless and unflagging set and supply the much-needed dynamics this type of music must contain in order to succeed in a live setting.

Throughout the night, HEATH construct their songs on a foundation of unprecedented surprise, onto which glass-necked guitar riffs are built up and up into a mesmerising frenzy, battling with the ferocious kick and smash of Miller’s drumming, each note ricocheting off the other, until at last, just as the audience are on the brink of comatose, everything shatters into infinitesimal shards of minimalism. This, presumably, is why they have become notorious for outstanding live performances and, in a completely paradoxical way; it results in a feeling of unqualified relaxation.

Photos by Glenn Bloxham-Mundy