Live Review: Greg Puciato - The Garage, London
8th March 2023
Support: Tayne, Trace Amount
Words & Photos: Jacob Schwar
Tonight’s performance was the 8th date on Greg Puciato’s UK and Ireland tour which started at the beginning of the month in Bristol alongside Trace Amount and with local support tonight from Tayne, this see’s Greg Puciato returning to the UK following his tour with Better Lovers back in October 2023 to perform his ‘solo’ material consisting of songs from an array of genres such as sludge/grunge to industrial/synth-pop catering for just about anyone.
Kicking things off were Tayne, a local three-piece who I’ve had the pleasure of seeing live on several occasions, with their style of music being an experimental mix of noise and industrial with a subtle dose of metal thrown in. A set highlight included the purely industrial track ‘Coherent’ with its pummelling yet groovy rhythm in which your torn between either dancing or nodding along to the beat profusely. Also, with their biggest hit ‘Silence’ which is atmospheric and sluggish to begin with almost reminding me of the slower, doomy tracks from industrial mavericks Ministry before picking up the pace with a uniquely dreamy vocal performance which is signature to Tayne and their sound especially. I noticed with a majority of tonight’s performers there was a strong ‘no-f**ks-given’ kind of attitude with each band getting up on stage to play their set and keeping dialogue with the audience to a minimum or not at all with Tayne following suit by blasting through their set without pause and humbly exiting the stage afterwards, as every band should (in my opinion) though I digress!
Up next was Brooklyn-based one-man industrial/noise project Trace Amount as approved by Greg Puciato himself with this band being on his own record label Federal Prisoner Records. Trace Amount consists of Brandon Gallagher, a stout individual with a truly imposing stage presence combined with the extremity of his music making for an intimidating stage show to say the least. He tore through the set unleashing much angst and pure emotion on songs such as the trepidatious ‘Anxious Awakenings’ and ‘Anti-Body Language’ with its groovy high-hat beat amongst a sea of noise with both these tracks demonstrating the harsh, intimidating nature of Trace Amount’s music overall. We were further subjected to a newer track ‘Living Accessory’ which I’d consider slightly more accessible though still hard-hitting with which we can hear the influence of current artists such as N/O/I/S/E-era Ghostmane especially in which I hope we’ll see more of this style being utilised by Trace Amount going forward as its works excellently!
Greg Puciato was on next, out they came to a massive applause before kicking straight into a new, unreleased song ‘Force Fed’ which was a much welcome rush of adrenaline as the song was straight-up chaotic, what an introduction! It was quite special to see Greg himself on stage again and up-close as I last saw him with Dillinger Escape Plan back in 2017, witnessing his stage presence and capability in a more intimate setting was truly phenomenal. They pulled out some great metal numbers for this set such as the broodingly heavy ‘Do You Need Me To Remind You?’ with Greg giving a fantastic vocal performance on this track especially whilst going sludgey with ‘Reality Spiral’ and then more Seattle-grunge with ‘Deep Set’.
Though I was pleasantly surprised to hear some of the more synth/electronic output tonight with ‘A Pair Of Questions’ in which certain aspects of the track remind me strongly of OMD whilst ‘Evacuation’ is a full-on industrial rock banger in a similar vein to Nine Inch Nails without a doubt. Though to top all this off was during their encore with the track ‘Lowered’ which features guest vocals by Code Orange’s Reba Myers who low and behold appeared on stage beside Greg to do a duet, it was a breath-taking moment and pleasantly romantic too, I really didn’t know what to expect tonight and was honestly impressed on a few occasions, all I can say is go see Greg Puciato next time he’s in town no matter what form or band he’s appearing in, you won’t be disappointed!
Photo credits: Jacob Schwar
