The Death Set's last Baltimore show before jumping into a European tour was full of local celebrities. From City Paper writers to a pudgy, bespectacled, electronic breakout, to the skinny-jeaned drummer of Baltimore's most promising, screamy art-rock quartet, they were all there to send the Australian-born darlings of Baltimore's music scene off with a fond farewell.
The Lo-Fi Social Club, which is, to be honest, much less intriguing than its neighbor Club Choices, was packed and annoyingly well-lit for the show that also featured Matt and Kim, Naked on the Vague, and the Pharmacy. The Death Set marched their equipment through the thick crowd and set up on a stage that was completely invisible throughout the set. One thing that is unique to the Death Set, something I've yet to see any other band do, is that they introduce each song in a set with a pop song. After warming up to Fannypack's "Hey Mami," they strummed along to the Jackson Five's "I want you back" and a few others before launching into "Impossible."
"For hometown shows I try and make them special and infrequent these days," said lead singer Johnny Sierra, "always with my friends' bands ... so they've been crazy and super fun."
At one point Sierra stood on what may have been an amp (this was the only point at which I actually saw a member of the band) and he didn't exactly fit. Using a hand to balance against the ceiling he sang an entire song scrunched between amp and ceiling with a smile on his face as he swung the mic around like nunchucks.
The nuclear weapon in the Death Set's loaded arsenal is "Negative Thinking." It's an infectiously upbeat punk anthem about fallen idols that is just as good on its 67th listen as it is on its first. It combines everything magical about the Baltimore electronic sound with lyrics that come from somewhere between Australia and Brooklyn.
They tore through the 13-song set in under 45 minutes, which was actually pretty refreshing. It was just enough to whet my appetite for mayhem.
Their first full-length album, Worldwide, is due out this week and Sierra promises, "real fun, spazzy, uptempo punk," that we've seen from their live shows and other EPs. "This time I had more fun with it and got to experiment some different styles and stuff, but overall, it's fun!" Sierra said.
At Lo-Fi they closed their set with a cover of Nirvana's "Territorial Pissings," an effect that was almost lost due to the mismatched levels at club.
The group had just finished conquering the South by Southwest festival in Texas and are poised to take over Europe with their new album in tow.
