“I don’t mind the dancing thing but the shoving thing is a bit too much”.
All this Sunday night commotion apparently proved too much for the frontman of the Massachusetts post-punk band, Pile - now performing their sold-out show within the notoriously cramped Moth Club in London. Having recently released their 7th LP, Green and Gray, earlier this year, one would’ve thought that by now Rick Maguire & Co should be used to such energetic crowds imbued by the underground scenes of slowcore, art-rock, and modern punk. With the onsetting Monday blues creeping their way upon us, the crowd ultimately turned to the burgeoning effects of Pile’s emotional repertoire to soothe their souls in the only way they emphatically knew how - ‘shoving’.
The name of Pile’s game was instigated by their latest set of tracks, journeying the audience through bouts of impassioned emotional outbursts and calm retreats. From tracks such as ‘Your Performance’, ‘On a Bigger Screen’, and ‘Firewood’, the intensely intimate fray of this ex-servicemen's club in Hackney immediately lent itself well to the frenetic nature of Pile’s repertoire. Conjuring Maguire’s leadership of dissonance and melodious sections throughout these tracks, Moth Club essentially witnessed an enticing inception to their set exemplified by the frontman’s multifaceted vocal delivery.
As Pile’s set evolved, so too did their sound - breaching into their older discography over the past few years. Whilst the hellish punk upsurges were also balanced out by more calming plateaus, Pile’s older discography became apparently less refined their more recent LP. ‘Bump a Grape’ and ‘Baby Boy’ certainly garnered an emphatic reception, yet their art-rock divulsion on their recent record left much to be desired with Pile’s older tracks - waning against the more structured and well-crafted hooks displayed tonight.
"I'm hung up on being untethered in a way that agrees with me...with the door open".
The hard-hitting hits from Green and Gray exuded these refined facets to the sold-out crowd - courtesy of such tracks as ‘Hair’, ‘A Labyrinth With No Center’, and ‘The Soft Hands of Stephen Miller’. In spite of their underground status, these tracks are at the forefront of the act’s recent critical appraisal - cutting to the core of Maguire’s deeply personal and scarring lyricism. Surging to the fore of this sweat-induced room, Pile ultimately concluded this evening with the latter track - showcasing a rare solo vocal performance from Maguire as he conducted an indelible blend of art-rock tempos and post-punk vibrations.
Deep into the tail-end of this tumultuous British summer time, the American post-punk outfit Pile temporarily calmed our onsetting Monday blues with an intimately brimming show in London’s Moth Club. Whilst I may hold my qualms against the mixing of their bassy distortions contained within this room, it’s relatively easy to see why this particular band are so revered in the underground punk scene across the world. Fluctuating between such blaring and mellow tonalities, as well as Maguire’s hauntingly robotic vocal delivery, Pile brought out the best from this incandescent crowd swelled in an atmosphere of beer, sweat, and shoving.
7.5/10
Pile's latest LP, Green and Gray, is out now and can be found here.
Photos are courtesy of Dani Bolton whose work can be found here.
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