Ahead of their trip to SXSW next month Mandy, Indiana played their first sold-out headline show in a packed basement of Yes on Friday night. Creating a huge wall of sonic distortion interspersed with Valentine's French lyrics set to lighting that veered from blinding to non-existent, they mesmerised a crowd that were drawn to the stage.
Moth Slut open up the evening with a six-song set of live guitars and backing track with vocals being swapped between the pair of them. They describe themselves on stage as having 80s punk goth vibes and a bit feral at various points in the set and they certainly do seem to be taking a huge swathe of the music they probably grew up listening to and making it into a mixture that allows their personalities to shine through and for them, and the audience, to have fun without taking everything too seriously.
They start with singles Parabellum and Omni Tempore, titles that suggest something far more pretentious, than this upbeat carefree music suggests. They struggle a bit, or perhaps it's intentionally set up that way, with everything being a little distorted, but it doesn't detract from the impression they leave. New single Forever Again, out in a couple of weeks, and final song Deliver Me are highlights in a set that has the crowd moving before the headliners take the stage, led by Valentine who's down the front cheering them on.
Mandy, Indiana's fifty-minute set is like a relentless onslaught, only punctuated by some minor technical difficulties with a guitar lead that gives us a little respite and pause for breath. Like no other group in town they create an overwhelming sonic tsunami of keys and effects, live drums and guitars through which comes a half-spoken half-sung French vocal that few can make out fully at times yet alone understand. The lighting adds to the feeling of the audience being overwhelmed but also being utterly hooked into what the four of them are creating. Their songs, if you can call them songs, they're more like huge monolithic sonic bombardments than anything resembling traditional structures, all merge into one, there's no pause for respite for them or us other than the technical difficulty.
Singles Nike Of Samothrace, Bottle Episode, the most recent Injury Detail and final song Alien 3 are all present in the set, but each feel like they've undergone a remarkable transition from their recorded versions to something much more powerful and all-consuming. Valerie stands dead centre for most of the set, letting the light pour over her and then descend into darkness, often in her own world, smiling, laughing and, we think, crying at points as if the music has taken possession of her. She heads out into the crowd during Alien 3 at the end to find people to encourage to lose themselves in the music.
The unreleased songs have personalities of their own but still operate within the Mandy, Indiana policy of striking first and asking questions later. They push things right to the very edge, both in terms of volume and how much is going on, there's little space to move (literally, we've never seen the basement that packed) but rather than feeling like you're being trapped, it's liberating. Pitchfork described them perfectly as walking "a fine line between violent and groovy." Music that's being made for music's sake and Valentine's impromptu speech at the end suggests that they're genuinely taken aback that people want to listen to it. It's something she and they need to get used to.
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