The clientele of Dead Wax Social in Norwich is shockingly varied. The new bar on St George’s Street is a melting pot of partying students, craft beer hipsters, and cigarette smoking old heads with a penchant for vinyl records. It’s refreshing to see such different groups band together in a singular venue, although it makes it hard to get to the bar.
You’d expect the crowd to get a little more specific as you head upstairs, away from where each corner of the city has collided, to the small gig space. Depending on the bands playing, there’d be a circle of hippies, metalheads, indie kids, or the like. But the audience for ClownSmashEverything, Project Mork, and Amongst Strangers on Saturday October 17th was as hard to pin down as Dead Wax’s usual locals.
Let’s go through a few of the stand outs in the crowd:
- An older man in a self-embroidered battle jacket, with little to no room for anymore names to be added.
- A handful of adults clad in Lederhosen, beginning a night of Oktoberfest celebrations.
- A young woman with trad goth makeup and an “I Love Hot Moms” t-shirt.
- A young man still dressed in his East of England Co-Op work uniform.
I, clad in head to toe Carhartt and camo, expected to stick out like a sore thumb in this crowd, but it seemed that luck was on my side. Everybody was unique.
Uniqueness was the core value of this lineup. In a way, the music reflected the crowd – classic pop punk morphed into thrash, which then threw the crowd for a loop with jazzy time signatures, and finished off with a wall of hardcore noise. An interesting taste, yes, but certainly a recipe for a memorable night.
Amongst Strangers were first, a group of four clad in skate punk t-shirts that played their instruments almost at their knees. The energy was high, despite their proclaimed illnesses, which may have caused the set to fall a little into chaos at certain moments.
The highlight of the Amongst Strangers’ set had to be “Architects”, a peak moment of musical cohesion with a quintessential punk sound that had the Dead Wax crowd moving. The bassline and lyrics of this song stood out; a great message about who holds power bought home with a continuous thump in the chest.
Despite his brief shade to Livewire’s photographer for a flashy camera, the band’s lead guitarist Kev was very talented. He held my attention throughout the set with great riffs and an energy level that rose above his admittedly poorlier peers. Altogether, on a day without the unfortunate disruption of a sickness bug, I can see Amongst Strangers holding their own as a headlining band; I mean, it’s nigh on impossible not to enjoy a skate punk show.
Following a fifteen minute break and the quick consumption of two lime lagers, I joined the crowd for Project Mork’s set. I had heard of the band’s musical prowess and genre-bending “Shabba Thrash” style, which I’ll admit both excited and confused me. Sometimes I feel that these experimental groups can descend into pretentious noise.
However, when Project Mork settled onto the stage, they looked the opposite of pretentious. The frontman, a spitting image of LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, cracked a few jokes to his bandmates before the four-piece broke out into a perfectly rehearsed set. No setlist, no counting in, no real discussion. Project Mork are a band perfectly in tune to each other’s musical style and individual quirks, navigating unconventional time signatures and jazz solos alongside a classic punk energy and lyric style.
A personal favourite of mine was “Nigel Farage’s Suicide Wank Fantasy”, a protest song that speaks for itself. The politically charged and explicit lyrics garnered the support of the crowd, who’s wave of energy hit its peak as a mosh pit hit the Dead Wax floor. It is easy to get confused when observing a Project Mork show as an outsider, but once you get into that pit, the message is clear; embrace the chaos or get out of the way.
Clown Smash Everything posses the same ethos. For most headliners, you know what you’re getting – something slightly more conventional to reel folks in. Dead Wax bravely sidestepped this, and instead chose a hybrid of hardcore instrumentals, punk lyricism, and borderline death metal vocal delivery to finish out the night.
Unfortunately, the opening to the set was more of a fizzle than a bang, as vocalists Gav and Jay lost power in their microphones, and the Dead Wax sound engineer ran around like a headless chicken attempting to fix it. I’m glad to say that both the sound and the set recovered quickly after this, and the band broke out into their perfectly executed, politically charged noise that bought every oddly dressed audience member into a mosh pit that lasted throughout the set.
Every member of the band stood out as a proficient musician, whose stage presence seemed almost like a split personality when looking at their everyday selves. Gav is a relatively quiet guy, often clad in a Deftones cap and possessing an impressive musical knowledge. Guitarist Jay is a chess-playing genius and does an incredible impression of the Skarsgard family. Bassist Chris is a replica of The Cure’s Robert Smith and carries his same mysteriously silent demeanour, and drummer Jordan is your quintessential metalhead, as well as a talented gig photographer outside of his work with the band. Near the end of the set, Gav yells to the crowd: “REPEAT AFTER ME! EVERYONE IS UNIQUE!” and the band shows us just how to do it.
My favourite songs of the set were undoubtedly “Flat Earthers Must Die” and “Stay in Your Lane”, two songs with clear punk messages surrounding, you guessed it, conspiracy theorists and people who claim to support their local music scene but don’t act upon their words. Clown Smash Everything cover topics in their music that I have never heard before, and although I’d appreciate some other vocal stylings throughout the set rather than a classic hardcore scream, I couldn’t resist headbanging as the gig came to a close.
Dead Wax is a perfect venue if you feel like you don’t fit in, and their gig lineups make it easier than ever to find your crowd. Look out for music you’ve never heard live before and go, I promise you won’t regret it. Maybe you’ll find an Amongst Strangers, a Project Mork, or a Clown Smash Everything and come home with a passion for your local music scene.
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