Death From Above Show Review

By Mike Stringham

On Friday, November 23^rdI went to see Death From Above (1979) at Elsewhere in Brooklyn. This was another wonderful PopGun Presents show (they put on an overwhelming amount of cool shows) that I had the pleasure of attending. Ironically enough, I saw DFA in 2014 on Black Friday as well, but that was at Terminal 5.

Anyway, I had work right before the show and I got to Elsewhere about fifteen minutes before DFA went on. For those that haven’t heard of Death From Above before – they are the essence of what is dance punk / dance rock. You undoubtedly will jump and dance when listening to their music, as I was at this show.

This tour and show are a special tour – because they are celebrating by playing their first EP, Heads Up in its entirety. With a new repress including several different variants on vinyl and a cassette repress to accompany the tour. I for one have been looking to get this EP on vinyl for the past 5 years, with no luck. Heads Upwas only pressed on vinyl twice, once at its release in 2002 and again in 2005. People have been flipping this album for well over a decade and the cheapest copy I’ve seen at this time was for $60, which I wasn’t willing to spend. I just got my vinyl copy in the mail (only cost like $22 including shipping), and I have yet to listen to it, but I’m definitely pumped.

Death From Above opened up their set with the first song off of that EP, “Dead Womb” (which is one of my all-time favorites by the band). Little push pits opened up with mostly just friendly pushing and jumping around the entire set. Push pits are kind of funny when you go to quite a few hardcore shows and you see people literally injuring each other in legitimate pits; though I would prefer not to get injured at a show if possible haha. DFA played about 20 songs spanning their entire catalog, including another one of my favorites off of their seminal album You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine, “Black History Month”. See below for links to all the albums/songs I mentioned and see you next show I review.

 

Heads UpEP: https://soundcloud.com/ancientfashionrecords/sets/death-from-above-heads-up

“Dead Womb”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMkaMbaZ3Qs

You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine:https://soundcloud.com/deathfromabove1979/sets/youre-a-woman-im-a-machine-1

“Black History Month”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeZYjXNnT44