Rockfreaks.net

support Forever Unclean + INTHEWAVES + The Careless Drinkers
author PP date 01/04/22 venue Underwerket, Copenhagen, DEN

Concerts are back at full strength at Corona feels like an afterthought these days. But no good news comes without bad news: the capacity of our favorite basement venue UnderWerket has been drastically reduced to house a maximum of fifty guests. Alas, tonight's double album release show with local regulars Forever Unclean and Croatia's Trophy Jump is sold out quickly and more than a few people are left disappointed in advance of the show.

The Careless Drinkers

First up is The Careless Drinkers, a duo that's all over the place on the genre map. They mix surf-rock vibes with Beach Slang style noisy garage punk and throw in some Midwestern punk and rock'n'roll sandwiched in between. For instance, one of the first tracks today sounds like Nothington given its gravelly vocals, later we're in a Midwestern punk and surf/rockabilly blend, and we even get a cover of Nirvana's "Territorial Pissings" in at one point. Despite vocalist Ibu Geertsen's convincing croon on songs like "Wasted", where it really feels like the band is onto something, their songs overall are rather inconsistent and suffer from the lack of bassist where the single guitar and drums approach leaves more to be desired. The sound would be much richer with a bass guitar supplementing the garage-ish distortion.

INTHEWAVES

INTHEWAVES are a relatively new emo band from Copenhagen, but one with a sound rarely heard within the borders of this country. They sport a brand of semi-screamed, emotionally-charged punk rock that's usually associated with Midwestern emo bands, with a hint of pop punk melody and post-hardcore crunchiness attached for good measure. With strong clean/scream dynamics and call/response patterns that could've been on early Taking Back Sunday records, their energy on stage (and soundwise) is eerily reminiscent of the volatile passion that Dogleg displayed on "Melee" two years ago. Everyone in the band is contributing to vocals, which creates a spirited vibe of raw urgency as the band's buzzing melodies ring awesomely in our ears. The energy oozes through their passionate performance, and given how tight they are instrumentally tonight, INTHEWAVES surprise just about everyone at the venue and receive thunderous applauds when they finish their short set. Be sure to catch these guys live sooner than later.

Forever Unclean

Copenhagen punk rock regulars Forever Unclean released their debut album "Best" on new year's day, so the majority of material tonight is naturally off that record. They open with "Scars" and "Woods", but it's the older track "Dinosaur" and its "come on, race me to the bottom" parts that draw tonight's first big sing-along from the crowd. But as we traverse through seven songs off the new album sandwiched in between cuts from "Woof" and "Float" EPs, they start feeling as if they had always been a part of their back catalogue given how uniform their sound is at this point. The you fucking liar parts of "Sleep" are infectiously catchy, but so are the opening bits to "Mandy" and the all-Danish "Kold" from the new material. Still, it's "Waves" and its a capella bit that continues to stand as the highlight of Forever Unclean sets, as Lasse steps away from the microphone and allows the crowd to sing the "Waves will come and wash away, wash away everything everything" lyrics. It just works so nicely in a tight basement type of an atmosphere like tonight.

As usual, the band displays great energy on stage and delivers their signature style of snarly vocals and fast punk rock melodies in a solid fashion that looks readily polished for their upcoming European tour that includes a slot at Manchester Punk Fest over Easter.

Setlist:

• 1. Scars
• 2. Crowds
• 3. Dinosaur
• 4. Woods
• 5. Sleep
• 6. Words
• 7. Mandy
• 8. Waves
• 9. Kold
• 10. Broken
• 11. Worthless
• 12. Woof
• 13. Persona

Trophy Jump

Not sure why, but Trophy Jump are holding their record release show for their solid PUP-inspired record "Feels" here in Copenhagen. Unfortunately, one of their guitarists is out tonight due to illness, so their chaotic songs feel a little less so tonight, but only slightly so, and that's because the material from "Feels" is virtually tailored to morph venues like UnderWerket into sweaty pits of passion. And that's exactly what happens tonight. The crowd starts crashing into each other and jumping around especially to the new songs, thanks to their bouncy and disorderly vibe.

Their debut album is more a standard fare punk rock record with breakneck speed tempo, which isn't bad, but the "Feels" songs just are so much better in comparison from a songwriting perspective. "Leather Couch", for instance, works brilliantly even with one guitar missing, creating an infectious crowd dynamic that's seldom seen outside the very best shows in this venue. "I Don't Wanna Live In A Fitness Ad" earlier brought the same feeling, and the passion meets profit sing-alongs of "Brkn Values" are back-chillingly good.

With most songs coming off "Feels", the crowd gets rowdier and in the end, we're in a situation where the split between where the band ends and the crowd starts gets fuzzier and fuzzier as it all looks and feels like a giant party. This is what the best kind of basement shows look and feel like - with this kind of energy, Trophy Jump has a great future ahead of them.