Secret Meeting score: 90

by Philip Moss

Bradford Cox seems very much to be a man that acts in the moment. And its this quality that makes the avant-garde, punk spirited noise maker such an interesting proposition.

Having completed his own soundcheck, and dressed in scrubs like he was about to go in to perform surgery, ‘Where’s the drummer?’ Cox hooted over the microphone – ‘What is happening? What am I doing?’

But after launching into Microcastle’s opening pair, Cover Me (Slowly) and Agoraphobia, the band’s soaring sonic palette took full advantage of the former Wesleyan church’s natural reverb. Despite early sound issues – a couple of electric shocks from the microphone and feedback squeals – the notably difficult Cox remained relatively calm.

First up of the new songs (rumoured to be produced by Welsh experimentalist, Cate Le Bon) was Futurism. With a drub of angular guitars, it marked a notable change in sound from anything they’ve previously released. Gone were the spacious, feedback buried guitars, replaced by tight, sharp hooks from Lockett Pundt, and straight drums that brought the song to an uncharacteristic dead stop.

Playing the unassuming McCartney to Cox’s Lennon-a-like eccentricity, Pundt took up lead vocals on the Halcyon Digest highlight, Desire Lines. As one of the most outright pop moments in the Deerhunter canon, with its ‘whoa’ choral refrains, the song then sprang into a wall of feedback as Cox’s guitar exploded – before the pair’s intertwined guitar parts cut through the barrage of distortion layered over Moses Archuleta’s explosive, rocksteady beat.

Helicopter, as expected, was magnificent. Now free from the shackles of playing guitar, Cox channeled the earlier calmness into a passion filled aggression. As he paced the stage like a howling preacher – reminiscent of a fully charged Nick Cave at his demonic best – he thumped his chest and cupped his microphone, sucking every last breath from his lungs.

After the signal from the side of the stage indicated there was only time for one more song, Cox wasn’t quite done, and orchestrated their wall of sound twice more: penultimate song, Take Care was the only slice from 2015’s Fading Frontier, before they brought the show to its conclusion with a brutally cacophonous version of He Would Have Laughed. Proof, if anyone needed it, that when the spark is lit, Cox and his band of Atlanta based droogs are as exciting a proposition as any other in alternative music.

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