I arrived earlier than initially planned to the Beauty Bar and therefore was completely unprepared for the first act to grace the stage after I arrived. Turns out "grace" would be a completely inaccurate word to describe The Death Set. After some funky samples and playful interchange during their setup I was getting tenatively ready for a blend of electronic, hip-hop and rock. My thought 55 seconds later? "Holy Fuck." The group rapidly moved from the electronic samples and some hip hop vocals of the opening minute into some hardcore punk rock, during which I lost track of any lyrics lead singer Johnny Siera might have been singing or yelling, though the crowd seemed quite familiar and I began to suspect this is the type of group that has a devoted following and is known for their live performance antics. The crowd immediately formed a mosh pit and proceded to thrash about non-stop until the set ended. Most entertaining to this reviewer was the crowd surfing antics of both guitarists, including a back dive off the stage with guitar in hand and several trips atop the crowd in which Siera managed to actually to walk across the ceiling.
Upon listening to them via the internet after seeing the live performance I've found that about half of their recorded stuff seems to be much lighter on the punkrock side and heavier on the electronic influences which suits my style a bit more as I'm not much into the noiserock punk scene (I tend to prefer to be able to understand lyrics I hear.) I will say they did do a effective job of incorporating catchy electronic samples and beats into the first 45seconds of several of their songs but the hip-hop vocals were largely lost as most of the group was busy jumping around hugging one another rather than actually singing into the microphones. The drunken crowd managed to completely engross themsleves in the whole event, at times even moving onto the stage. If you are at all inclined to go to any sort of show where you can vent energy and slam into others while listening to enjoyable punk music with the real possibility of things getting broken then you probably should check out the The Death Set if you havent found them already.
