Live Review: Liars, HTRK

HTRK wasted no time in turning Carriage Works' small Bay 20 in an oppressive room of post-punk bliss. Still touring on the back of their stellar 2014 release Psychic 9-5 Club, the duo's electronic-percussive heavy tracks take on new form when played live. The noise, the abstract projections and their own menacing stage presence give the otherwise inviting (by HTRK standards) songs a new brutalist, cold edge. What could've been a dirge though, was always saved by the group's knowledge of pop form with each moment of painful or noisy misery undercut by an infectious hook.
When a band starts a set by having its lead singer dance out wearing a creepy home-knitted balaclava with a beard, it's obvious that spectacle is key. Thankfully, Liars have the musical chops to back it up. The trio have always struck the beautiful middle ground between straight-up dance-rock and crazed noise-punk, and while they've moved closer to the former in recent years, in a live context they couldn't help themselves from letting loose and getting truly wild. While set highlights Mess On A Mission and Plaster Casts Of Everything got the madly enthusiastic crowd jumping, hearing more abstract compositions like WIXIW in a live context showed off what the band could really do. There's no denying the group has a brilliant discography, but seeing the trio change between drum kits, keyboards, homemade glitch stations and guitars mid-song was something to behold. With all the experimentation the group belts out, it would be easy to place them into abstract 'academic' circles when discussing them, and that is accurate to a certain degree, but what kills that (and what makes their live show so perfect) is their unending dedication to partying.