The Horrors Turn Mod Club Into Madhouse

The Mod Club

Toronto, ON

on Jun 11 2007

Caitlin Hotchkiss (CHARTattack)

06/13/2007 12:30pm

It wasn't looking good. From The Horrors' point of view, however, it must have been excellent — an entire roomful of the mohawked, pierced and the eyeliner-smeared, all on edge to see the British goth-punk quintet.

But for the average concertgoer looking to avoid bruised body parts, it was obviously going to be a night of pain, unless you threw away all your inhibitions and joined in on the mayhem (which was probably the point).

The relatively sane people lingered halfway towards the back of the room in order to save their skin. The diehard Horrors fans clung to the front two rows, screaming their black little hearts out. And then there were the mayhem-causing punks who were seemingly intent on causing as much aggressive punishment as possible. Either way, chaos certainly did erupt. And The Horrors revelled in it.

Frontman Faris Rotter is a born performer, not in the staged or conscientious sense, but something that more evokes Ian Curtis crossed with Iggy Pop. From the moment he threw himself onstage, the lead Horror showed he was prone to jerky movements and spastic twitching, and he often simply paced around in a rapid circle, muttering incoherent nonsense into the microphone. The really creepy thing about it was that none of it seemed like planned theatrics — he honestly seemed pretty freaking unhinged up there, and the crowd loved it.

"We're very happy to be here in Toronto; you can see the excitement on our faces," Rotter drawled, unsmiling, in a British-inflected voice that would make Peter Murphy proud. And although the rest of The Horrors were more given to sadistic laughter than expressions of happy cheer, this was a true statement.

Jittery, big-haired guitarist Joshua Von Grimm stomped and flailed just enough to look fashionable while rocking out, and keyboardist Spider Webb dutifully lived up to his namesake, long fingers skittering over the Hammond organ through "Count In Fives."

It wasn't all doom and gloom. Surprisingly bouncy songs "Death At The Chapel" and "Crawdaddy Simone" balanced out the foreboding darkness of "Jack The Ripper" and just went to show that The Horrors aren't entirely rooted in Edward Gorey and Victorian gothic. There's plenty of rockabilly and surf influence in their music as well.

Punk's not dead, though, and Rotter was more than pleased to contribute to the thrashing madness happening below. More than once, a person was able to make it onstage, only to have Rotter "assist" them in their stage-diving techniques. (In other words, there was a whole lot of audience member-tossing going on.) During a venomous rendition of "Draw Japan," Rotter actually hurled himself into the mosh pit, shrieking and screaming while the band played on, sweat dripping and makeup running.

Fittingly, show closer "Gloves" ended with Rotter being carried back into the pit on the shoulders of a bar patron as the music went silent long enough for there to be an atomic-bomb effect when the singer suddenly howled, "And I can't take it anymore!"This audience, however, could. Horrors, please feel free to bring it back anytime.