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SXSW Review: DD/MM/YYYY
(Midnight Wednesday, Emo’s Jr)
When the guys in Toronto’s DD/MM/YYYY (Day Month Year) sing, there’s no way of knowing what they’re saying. But whether they’re blaring through your headphones or banging on their instruments onstage, you probably don’t care. It’s fast. It’s frantic. It’s steady, tight and hard-driving, yet still as wild as a spastic strobe light.
When this experimental audio assault — a technical post-hardcore onslaught devoid of nearly any trace of melody — hit the crowd at Emo’s on Wednesday night, some audience members were frozen in place. But many others couldn’t resist the urge to dance and groove to the unpredictable, off-kilter rhythms, especially during the bouncy guitar riffs of “Imagine,” which sounded like an instrumental performance of “Blitzkrieg Bop” on speed.
The experimental five piece’s setup onstage centered around the drums, which had an extra snare and splash cymbal affixed to the front of it. The band was constantly swapping instruments, but one member would always pound away behind the set while another whacked out complementary rhythms out front and shouted into a microphone attached to various effects pedals.
Throughout the performance, the cuts from the band’s latest album, “Black Square,” officially released just this Tuesday, were obvious standouts. The slow-building blast of the melodic “No Life” was distinctly different from angular rockers like “Bronzage” and “Digital Haircut,” but they hit equally hard.
As the set progressed, it became clear that DD/MM/YYYY didn’t just sound ferocious — they were really ripping through their songs. Drumsticks splintered, snare heads busted, guitar strings snapped and effects pedals came unplugged.
“Everything’s broken,” one member said from the side of the stage.
But the delivery always sounded controlled, and it kept the crowd entranced through the 40-minute set.
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