PROM – Industrial Aphrodisiac Surf Punk
PROM play with such nonchalance you got the sense that they probably don’t give a shit whether you like them or not. So at ease with themselves onstage, the chat was kept to a minimum as they ripped through a brazen set of industrial surf. Dressed in dark blue sequins, Angela Mak led the band with frightening charisma, drawing you in with her frantic intensity, bulging eyes and punkish drawl. Mak’s stage persona is truly infectious and judging by the cries for more at the end of PROM’s first headline show at The Old Blue Last on Saturday night, I wasn’t the only one drawn in by her fearsome allure.
The band’s sound is somewhat difficult to define. It definitely has punk influences, and experiments with the brashness of industrial rock but there’s almost a sinister James Bond quality in their jarring guitar riffs. Add some sweeping strings and I’m quite sure one of their songs would be in the running for the title sequence of Spectre.
I scribbled something vaguely intelligible about Live And Let Die in my notes and I think there is something to that. The band’s sound has an underlying sinister quality that draws you in just as much as the unnerving Bond classic.
PROM wasted no time opening the show with Pristine Machine’s frenetic guitar trills, and squeezed harmonies overlaid with an angst-ridden call and response between Mak and bassist Nick Benton. The song barely lasted two minutes and it’s the perfect opener, a no bullshit welcome to the industrial vibes that were to come.
What is perhaps just as impressive is the band’s ability to be half cut and still perform a pro set. PROM are one of only a few bands that sound better live than they do on record and it’s no secret that they like to have a drink, something bassist Nick Benton admitted in a recent interview with Walloh. Getting hammered played an important part in how PROM found their sound, and this clearly transcends into their set – however, they’re tight as fuck live.
With the night drawing to a close, the band rounded off their set with three big tunes. Celebrate, a mid tempo marching waltz, trudged through with crunching guitars and anthemic, psychedelic riffs from lead guitarist Pip Stakem. After that the penultimate track Touch Me, delighted the packed out audience with a combination of drummer Ed Kirwan’s rolling toms and a mixture of heavy bass and expansive reverb.
Perhaps one of Mak’s most evocative performances, the lead vocalist cuts through the chorus screaming the song’s title. Finally, PROM closed the show with debut single Cry BabyCry, rifling through a combination of 60s ambience, jolting guitar hits and trills that brings back fond memories of great psychedelic soundtracks from movies like Pulp Fiction and Apocalypse Now.
The only sticking point of the show was the couple eating each other’s face off during Cry Baby Cry but this was no fault of the band, who were blissfully unaware of their newfound aphrodisiac qualities.
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