New Secret Weapon, Button Factory, Dublin
- Written by Marky Edison
Photos: Kaye Kim
It's culture night in Dublin. Free events spanning high and low culture are happening all over the city but in the Button Factory there is a different type of cultural celebration unfolding. Five diverse alt-rock bands in one beer-soaked room. By the time New Secret Weapon take the stage support acts Travis Oaks and Vernon Jane have set the bar pretty high. Their warm up is loud and dissonant and, after a few last minute tweaks, they kick off right on time.
New Secret Weapon are a three piece rock band in the mould of Biffy Clyro but with the approach of Queens Of The Stone Age. An instrumental opener builds to a crescendo and the banging of the heads begins. Unusual rhythms and time signature changes make the music unpredictable and exciting. It's the sound of a band that have read the rock rulebook, then decided that it wasn't enough and have started writing their own.
It took seven years and a crowd funding campaign for New Secret Weapon's debut album to appear but after attending a Steve Albini masterclass in February they are talking about album number two only a year later. You can tell that they are sound engineers from the constant commands to the sound desk. Precise commands too, regarding particular tones.
They obviously know exactly what they should sound like and they really do achieve an individual sound. It has the kind of bass you feel in your teeth as it sets them rattling in your jaw, lightning fast downstrokes on the guitar, and a propulsive rhythm section that alternately grooves and confounds. New Secret Weapon are not afraid to rock out either amid the creative playing and original sounds.
At one point Griff's mic comes loose mid- song and starts pointing towards the floor. He follows it without missing a beat, contorting his body around his guitar. A fan clambers on to the barrier and fixes it back in place. It's a diverse crowd of hairy rockers, hip indie kids, and a tall man who has modelled his look on Nicolas Cages 'H.I. McDunnough' from Raising Arizona. He is very much enjoying the show. Two different people ask me for drugs but I think this is probably less to do with the band and more to do with a Friday night in Templebar.
New Secret Weapon are not out for world domination but for their own musical satisfaction. Nevertheless they have won no shortage of admirers who voice their enthusiasm loudly and dance boisterously. One is ejected for moshing. We see him as we exit, cheerfully leaning against the barrier chatting with one of the other bands.
The call for an encore is answered and New Secret Weapon humbly thank the carousing assembly who have packed the venue. Post-show, pushing through the rickshaws and horse drawn carriages in the city that gave the world Kodaline and The Script, it does a soul good knowing that bands like New Secret Weapon still exist. We're left waiting with bated breath for that second album.