For those of you who don’t know, Down Charmed are a raucous post-punk band with anarcho leanings and consist of Abi on lead vocals, Ben on guitar, Mike on bass and Luke on drums. For tonight’s set at the Camden Assembly the band get off to a good start as they kick into the maniacal track Before the Break. The pounding bass and frenetic but steady drums are augmented by hypnotic riffing and overdriven guitar sounds effectively provided by Ben.
Abi’s distinctive vocals kick in using a semi-spoken word element whilst she interjects with a screaming approach that reminds me of a Beki Bondage / Poly Styrene hybrid, whilst maintaining her own individual and unique style. What’s more, as she fixes the enthusiastic audience with a ten-yard stare sporting eye make-up that could so easily come from the golden era of Glam, she looks the part.
With this band there are no fills, no frills and no histrionic guitar parts, just a solid, frenetic, fast, furious and enveloping soundscape that provides a vehicle for Abi to spit out her lyrics that embrace a plethora of esoteric and, at times, surreal subject matters, sometimes even going into neo-gothic territories with the swirling living dead and cardinal/graves, which reminded me of Flux of Pink Indians meets the chaos of The Cure’s experimental Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me period, especially in the guitar department.
Next up we get the perpetually pounding USP, which certainly lives up to its name and has a unique selling point. The morbidly entitled Obituary provides on-stage theatricality and is beautifully underscored by Mike’s incessantly catchy bassline that provides a stirring counterpoint to Abi’s unsettling vocal approach.
The band round everything off with a short, sharp rendition of Martyr; this penultimate track bleeds into the incessant riff-related track Whore, where Punk-siren Abi gets the audience joining in on the catchy chorus. A mighty fine way to end a magnificent set.If you haven’t seen Down Charmed, check them out, as they are a highly entertaining outfit who know how to inhabit space and provide a set of songs that are entertaining and thought-provoking in equal measure.
Down Charmed‘s 2024 debut EP, A First Attempt At Happiness, is available through streaming platforms
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