It has been one helluva ride. Starting six days ago in Bristol with both matinee and evening performances – a feat repeated in Manchester only yesterday – October and the Eyes’ tour of the UK supporting good friend the American experimental rock artist Yves Tumor reaches its dizzying climax in Leeds tonight. And all this comes hot on the heels of the release of October and the Eyes’ latest musical offering, the cataclysmic new single ‘Spiral’ which was featured in God Is In The TV’s Tracks of the Week #173 just the other week.
There is a vibrant party atmosphere in the Belgrave Music Hall and Kitchen tonight. The joint is jumping. And Kiwi Brit October is clearly in the right time, place and space to fully embrace that feeling. Backed by her ferocious four-piece band she launches straight into her very first single, ‘Playing God’. Taken from her 2020 debut EP Dogs and Gods, October cracks open the song allowing a torrent of volcanic industrial noise to pour out. She stalks the stage with lascivious cool and malevolent intent, staring unflinchingly into the eyes of those stood at the front. You sense that the experience for these youngsters was one of unnerving exhilaration.
‘The Unraveling’ unspools before us as October and the Eyes double down on the tenacious power button. Relentless and unforgiving, the sound they create owes much to The Stooges, Bauhaus and the creative tension that exists between a thundering rhythm, crashing guitar chords and October’s unwavering battle cries. This sheet of noise continues unabated through ‘You Deserve It’, dedicated to October’s “scumbag of an ex.” She cannot conceal her disdain as she howls out the song’s vitriolic words.
‘Spiral’ duly appears and in concert manifests itself in an even darker, more suffocating form. It comes cloaked in uncertainty as it teeters between hopelessness and hope, before October and the Eyes blast off into the night with a coruscating ‘All My Love’. To describe it as a love song would be doing it a complete disservice, though for all its disembodied sound there does remain a strange lustful beauty immersed somewhere deep within.
Photos: Simon Godley
More photos from this show are HERE
