Drones at The Garage

Headlining an eclectic lineup of musical talents, Drones performed a 40-minute set at The Garage on 6^th September in preparation for their forthcoming EP Free Marked Kid.

Since its inception in 1993, The Garage has established itself as a prominent venue for some of rock and pop’s most fertile acts, including Arctic Monkeys, Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Killers, and has thus retained a devoted fan following. This night however saw a moderate crowd at best, with many of the plaid wearing rockers turning up to support the opening acts, only to disappear once their set was over.

Despite being billed as a British punk act, Drones began their set with a much more frantic, heavier tone, manipulating harsh thrash-metal chords and screeching vocal melodies. This came up looking inferior to their support acts, namely the ferociously decadent Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Much of the guitar work, though loud, appeared lifeless and dull – picture a steady rhythm on a heart monitor – failing to retain the boisterous energy fashioned by the night’s earlier bands. Instead audience members were subjected to scrawny guitar licks and weak backing vocals, lost in a flurry of Mitchell Thomas’ monstrous drum fills.

Meanwhile lead vocalist Daly George’s American-accent shriek quickly lead to every tune sounding alike and at times difficult for him to maintain, his voice breaking every so often during the more challenging songs.

Nonetheless, the Drones tried hard to get the audience involved even trying a Lostprophets style crowd split/moshpit, though this was quickly exploited by the infectiously rowdy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and their diehard fans effectively stealing the show once more.

With each new song, the band exerted their energies to the limit, however it was clear that the audience were just keen for the next riff to start so that they could continue moshing and arguably would have settled for anything.

Jack Hill

For further information and future events visit Drones’ website here.

Watch the video for Graves here: