Japandroids played Death by Audio

With Death by Audio filled to capacity, Japandroids took to the stage backed by a mountain of amps. In some ways this may have been the quintessential Japandroids show. The 250 person venue was packed like a sweatbox as clouds of cigarette smoke and beer sprayed through the air. These guys played loud rough noise rock and pummeled the crowd with waves of sound. Unlike the show they played at the Mercury Lounge over a year ago, this show caught the duo on the end of about a two year run supporting their debut full length album. In the final stretch, the dudes left nothing to chance. The crowd erupted for the 1-2 punch of "Wet Hair" and the live debut of recent 7-inch single "Younger Us" (both songs containing perhaps my favorite lyrics from the past two years: "we run the gauntlet/must get to France so we can french kiss some french girls" and "remember that time you were already in bed/said fuck it came out to drink with me instead" respectively) and it seemed as if there was no looking back. The pulverizing drumming of David Prowse was matched by the screaming guitar of Brian King as they reminded the crowd not to hold anything back after each song. Their sound was massive and the crowd was fearless. At one point someone shouted "can it get any louder?" and Prowse simply answered "never."