The Bloody Beetroots tear up RockNess

3 CommentsThursday • June 17, 2010 • by admin

By Michael MacLennan

According to my timetable The Bloody Beetroots are on early (known live as The Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77, so it seems), but the RockNess crowd are more than ready for them.

“One! Two! Three!… What the F***ahhh!” Well, perhaps as prepared as it’s possible to be, the inhabitants of the increasingly crowded Clash Arena bouncing along en masse to the unhinged rave- and hardcore-saturated sonic insanity that detonates out of the rattling speakers. Many bands have attempted to tackle dance music live, but none as ferociously as this (unless Napalm Death have had a disco period that I’m unaware of), Warp 1.9 delivered with the sort of precise, glorious fury that most metal bands would struggle to master.

Though it’s far from being just ‘dance’, whatever that even means nowadays; at one point the drummer launches into a furious snare roll as keyboardist and main man Bob Rifo leaps to the front of the stage clutching a mic, the band throwing themselves into a full-on metal hardcore crossover, soon moving on to tackle snarling remix of Swedish hardcore-punk legends Refused’s New Noise. This is the sort of music that would soundtrack riots, were it perhaps not too intense even for that.

All members clad in black and wearing the masks of nightmarish comic book character Venom (though stretching over only to the mouth, allowing the keyboardist a crafty cigarette), the effect couldn’t be much mode menacing if you tried. Strange then that the crowd seem so grateful to see The Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77 absolutely tear apart the tent with a blistering comprehensiveness unmatched by any other act I’ve seen live before.

After a truly mosh-worthy breakdown, all frazzled electrics and blistering half-time drums, there’s some dry ice and a atmospheric cover of In the House, Without a Heartbeat from 28 Day Later, before the tempo shifts towards full throttle again for Romborama, the title track from their debut album, each beat punctured with mob-yelled ‘Ois’ and the snarling lead melody tugging away at any semblance of sanity that’s left in the room, as the entire audience seem to lose what’s left of their minds. I feel breathless, then try to imagine how the Italian group can possibly cope doing this night after night.

Though this is the sort of performance where everything’s turned up to 11, though there’s still enough room to breathe for memorable synth lines thrown in amongst the chaos, a relatively subdued and highly atmospheric finale even making use of Rifo’s impressive piano skills. The frenzied crowd are allowed a moment of applause before calming down enough to be able to be allowed outside. With these sort of performances The Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77 will be absolutely huge, providing they aren’t banned on ground of public safety first. Consider yourself warned.

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