KEXP at Iceland Airwaves, Day 4: Girl Band

Our third rocking set from Iceland Airwaves at Kex Hostel was Dublin droning noise act Girl Band. This younger Irish band has no girls, nor do they sound anything like the poppy sound their name might suggest. Instead, this four piece is driven by Adam Faulkner's fast, energetic drums and loud, Daniel Fox's deep and distorted bass. Alan Duggan's guitar adds insane chainsaw sounds and other craziness. And Dara Kiely's singing is by turns screamed, spoken, and occasionally actually sung. These boys bring a frenetic, loud, thrashing energy to live performance.

Their show here in Reykjavik was no exception. The set opened fast, high energy, and with an almost atonal quality. The room was much fuller for this show, and almost everyone was on their feet. The crowd began to rock out, some flailing their arms and bodies with the speedy beat. Several songs had dynamic shifts and changes, building to big sheiks, then receding to quieter, more restrained moments of just drums and vocals before blasting back in with huge sounds. These shifts in tone were effective at increasing the intensity of the loudest moments, which may have had a numbing effect if played top volume the entire show. The second song included Girl Band's signature buzz saw guitar. The beat was actually fairly grooving on this one, and the noises swirled around the room. These guys have a punk and hardcore energy, but their songs are more varied than either of those strict genre denominations. They closed out their six song set with a super fast, high intensity number that would certainly have garnered moshing at a show in the states. This song exploded out of the speakers and was over in about 10 seconds, 20 max. This ultra short but ultra loud song elicited cheers and smiles from a crowd ready for more.

Stick with us for our final live streaming act of the festival, CELL7.