Drenge, Institute, Birmingham

Drenge made themselves known to the world some 18 months ago, surfing on the back of their abrasive self-titled debut album and some unexpected PR assistance from West Midlands MP Tom Watson. Back then, the Loveless brothers were a loud and lairy duo that took rock music by the scruff of the neck and knocked seven bells out of it with their stripped-down sound. With the recent release of their second album, Undertow, however, there have been some changes.

Most noticeably, their sound has got richer and considerably grungier, while a bass player has been added to the line-up. However, given that chatting to the audience has never been a feature of Drenge gigs, we were never introduced to him.

While the new, expanded Drenge line-up did manage to inject considerable adrenaline into the evening, it didn’t really help the sound quality. The bass end frequently swamped everything else and for great stretches, Eoin Loveless’s guitar could barely be heard. This did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd of mainly teenagers and 20-somethings though. From the first bars of “Running Wild”, the sold-out Birmingham crowd took the new, jacked-up Drenge to their hearts and responded with all they had. Throwing themselves around with some force, the audience soon resembled a boiling human soup with pogoing and crowd surfing to the fore. In fact, by the time the band had launched into “Nothing” from their debut album, the bouncers were pulling a steady stream of sweaty teenagers over the front barriers from above the heads of the rest of the heaving mass, brushing them down and sending them on their way.

Drenge’s set was split down the middle with tunes from their two albums given equal space. Nevertheless every song was greeted like a classic. From the newer “Favourite Son” and “We Can Do What We Want” to older tracks like “Bloodsports” and “I Wanna Break You in Half”, the crowd never gave up bouncing around and singing along at the top of their voices. Even when the tempo slowed for “Standing In The Cold”, from Undertow, and set closers “Fuckabout” and “Let’s Pretend” they never let up for a moment.

If the response that Drenge received from their Birmingham audience is anything to go by, the band’s more grungey sound could provide them with a commercial breakthrough and a nudge up to a bigger league. It just has to be hoped that before that happens, they get a decent sound man for their gigs. They could then be truly a spectacular proposition.