Live Review: Copout/Spit/MooM @ Levontin 7, Tel Aviv [10th June 2016]

After a brief European tour, the hardcore punk trio, Copout, return to Tel Aviv for their 7" release show at Levontin 7. With them, they bring powerviolence noise makers MooM and "straight out of the 80s" hardcore punk/thrash super group Spit. As all the bands play really short songs, this is going to be a quick read!

MooM

As can be seen in previous reviews such as my review of their EP (see here), I absolutely love MooM. They play powerviolence and sludge, similar to the likes of Despise You and EYEHATEGOD. As great as they are on record, they are always more fun to watch live. Sima, like in everything she does, shouts her heart out on stage while the rest of the band play at breakneck speed.
There might be a lot of bands out here that play this kind of style but it is MooM who show the most promise and come off sounding as if they could already be forefathers of the genre. The whole band is just fully into it and it makes for a more enjoyable viewing. Bass player Gad is still a delight to watch due to his stances and faces but it really is a group effort.
It's such a shame that it's early days and they just have a super short set. They basically play the whole of both their First EP and the recently released and cleverly titled Second EP along with 2 brand new song (Lord Of Drug Lords and a currently untitled song) yet the set is still only about 15 minutes long tops. Ancient Scripts is still the most memorable of tracks for me but it's really difficult to soak everything else in when it all goes by so fast. The Nature Of Death and The Death Of Nature somehow manages to have an epic sounding first half and a counter-acting frantic second half and only be a minute long. Its' slow heavy pounding groove mixed with full throttle riffage is just the kind of thing that keeps me on my toes. I'm hoping things look up for them as they are set to embark upon a European tour during the summer. 

5/5

Spit

Leaning more towards old school hardcore punk and crossover thrash, local super group, Spit, take the stage next and yet again zoom through their Poison In Your Head LP from beginning to end. Normally, singer Nadav tends to go crazy and do a lot of weird shit, but tonight he just gets down to business. This only makes the performance a tad less entertaining as he still runs around on stage and the band still play until they sweat buckets. There's a temporary line-up change tonight, as Not On Tour/City Rats drummer Gutzi "sits" in for local vocalist/drummer legend Corey. Despite sometimes starting the wrong song or momentarily forgetting how something goes, Gutzi's drumming is still on point and ridiculously impressive for someone who only had a short amount of time to learn an entire album.

A few crowd members, like myself, are familiar with the material now and are singing along and causing a lot of commotion on the dance floor. I guess that's a job well done, lads! Stand out songs for me are Restart, R.A.M.B.O, Christchurch, Kill The Cancer and the epic set closer Flag II. 

4/5

Copout

With Levontin 7 still not as full as it could be, brothers in arms from Rosh HaAyin, Copout, take stage.

For anyone who hasn't checked out the band's debut record, Spray Paint (see review here), Copout walk in the shadow of bands like Kid Dynamite, Lifetime, Gorilla Biscuits and Black Flag, playing short songs mixing both technical musicianship and punk aggression. The songs are catchy, especially the likes of Oh No! and Where Is Your Mind? which are good sing alongs. The others might still need time to sink into people's heads because they're not as simply structured. 

As the band plays through their set, we hear every song off of Spray Paint, including their cover of the Black Flag song of the same name which is met with a great reception, but also play some currently unreleased tracks. The newer songs such as Disconnect and I Don't Care sound a tad heavier than their other material, almost touching upon Kids Insane-like hardcore in places, which actually works quite well.

In general, the songs do go by quite fast so it's difficult to take everything in. Nevertheless, Nir's tight and heavy drumming, Omer's solid bass lines and Uri's riffs have me nodding my head and tapping my toes while others are dancing at the front and getting pushed around. The boys in Copout are definitely doing something right. Having already gone on tour so early on in their career, their future looks bright.

4/5

Live Review: Kids Insane/Spit/Azor @ Levontin 7, Tel Aviv [3rd March 2016]

With the smaller, more punk venues closing down, more shows have been cropping up at Levontin 7. Tonight sees the return of Kids Insane, with their new guitarist, with support from punk supergroup SPIT and the strange choice of rock band Azor.

Azor

Poor Azor! They've been through the wars. With both drummers and bass players coming and going, guitarist and vocalist Yuval has had a lot on his shoulders to make sure his songs still get heard. Tonight is the first show for new bassist Ofer. Out of all previous bassists, he is the most metal. He alights the stage with a raised fist and plays the entire set with the same posture and charisma of a thrash bassist. He brings along that crowd encouragement that you see at metal shows, such as the "hey" fist pumping and mouthing the words. He even gets down amongst the crowd. He's definitely done this all before and shows no hints of nervousness.

Although musically not being totally in keeping with the rest of the night ahead, Azor's mixture of progressive hard rock and stoner seems to be causing a stir amongst the crowd. Although I've witnessed them have good reactions before, I don't think I've ever seen this much dancing at their shows. It could be that most of those dancing are close friends of the band, but it did encourage others around to join in, creating quite an electric atmosphere all round.
Azor's material does still sometimes come off as dated, reminiscent of Black Sabbath and Led Zepplin, but the creative drumming from Alon makes things a whole lot more interesting. As well as purposely showing off on the fittingly titled The Drummer Is Crazy, High Temp Flight's opening groove displays his talent from the very start of the set.
They may not play my favourite track from the High Tempo Flight album, Natasha, but Port City Girl comes close and has me singing along to as much as I can remember of the song. They also play a new song entitled Muse which does not quite sound like the band of the same name.
Yuval still gives it all he has on stage; his solos get better every time. Despite me being sceptical of the new bassist being "too metal" for this band, Yuval and Ofer seem to have gelled really quickly. Hopefully, this lineup will stick and there will be more shows as fun to watch as this.

3.5/5

SPIT

Consisting of Useless ID bassist/frontman Yotam Ben Horin on guitar, his brother Nadav on vocals (Sweatshop Boys/Mondo Gecko/Shifka Chiefs etc.), Kids Insane frontman Corey Swift on drums (also drummer for Mondo Gecko/Backliners/Tamutamen) and Kids Insane bassist Nadav Rotem on..well..bass, SPIT seems to have been born to bring back the 80s/90s hardcore punk of minute long songs you can skate and/or smash windows to.
 As the band basically play their 18 track debut album, Poison In Your Head, in its entirety, there is not quite as much of a reception dance-wise as there was for Azor. There might not be as many people familiar with the band or the record, but those who are sing along and raise their fists to the likes of To The Bones, R.A.M.B.O, Poison In Your Head and Restart. However, there is a good and obvious reason for the lack of movement; everyone is so engrossed in the spectacle that is Nadav Ben Horin that all you can do is stand and stare in wonder. With the others also playing with intense faces and joining in on vocals, the band as a whole give the performance every hardcore punk band should give.

 As the band zoom through all their quick-fire numbers, the set comes to a close with Flag II. As their longest, slowest and grooviest song, it is the perfect closer and gives Nadav more room to go absolutely bat shit crazy as he exclaims "I SPIT ON YOUR FLAG!". Nadav is known for his eccentric behaviour on stage, almost always ending half naked somehow. Tonight, he goes a little bit further, as he crawls into the "dressing room" area through the hatch, microphone still in hand, and tries to make his way out the dressing room door into the crowd. Unfortunately, the cable isn't long enough, so he returns with his trusty ladder and towers amongst the crowd to eventually dive on top of them for one final crowd surf.

  SPIT need to get out into the States and Europe and I'm pretty sure they will gain a much wider fanbase than they already do. It is pure hardcore punk that's well written, meaningful and still packs a mean punch.

4.5/5

Kids Insane

Both Azor and SPIT seem to have warmed the crowd up nicely as now everyone is up front for Kids Insane. As I write this, I admit that my memory of this is a bit hazy. This is one of those times where I actually got quite involved, doing a bit of dancing and shouting along. However, I can still say that they were totally on form, and even more so with Ofek from DUST now on guitar duties, who also did some great back up vocals.

  As always, the "classic" Kids Insane tracks get a great reception, with fans shouting along and a good amount of pushing and some actual hardcore dancing here and there. Tracks like Story Of A Lonely Street, Frustrated, Don't Need This (personal favourite) and Spread It All Over get the biggest receptions, as well as Same Shit, Different Scene and Love creating some sing alongs.
 With a new album almost ready to drop, the band play some brand new songs, such as set opener Black Burnt, Varicose, Slave and Overthinking. These don't seem to sit well with everyone here tonight but I am personally impressed. Some people simply don't like change and the new material is considerably different to their earlier work. Although Kids Insane may have always had The Bronx in mind as an influence and may have also had a similar "swagger" at times, frontman Corey has really moved his vocals into rock 'n' roll territory, making the influence more apparent. They also seem to have written a few more refrains and hooks which did have some people already repeating and singing along to but could become even more popular at future shows. I am definitely eager to hear and review the new album (hint, hint) as it seems even more up my street than some of their other more recent work. It'll also be interesting to see how different it is in general to their previous records.  

4.5/5

All photos by David "Doh Doh" Rosen