Death From Above 1979 at Metro

Death From Above 1979 played at Metro with Teen Mortgage as the opener. It was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen

Death From Above 1979 at Metro Nov 7, 2024

On November 7, I saw Death From Above 1979 at Metro in Chicago, with Teen Mortgage as the opener.

For this tour, Death From Above were celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut album You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine. They’ve also released re-recorded versions of the tracks this year.

A little bit about Death From Above 1979

If you know nothing about Death From Above 1979, they’re a very unique and interesting band from Canada that consists of two members: Sebastien Grainger, the singer and drummer; and Jesse Keeler, the bassist who also does keyboards occasionally. When I first started listening to them, I couldn’t tell if it was a bass or guitar, because of the interesting way he plays it. I found out that he typically plays higher on the fretboard, and uses one that has more frets than a typical bass, so it sounds a little higher pitched. I would describe their sound as garage rock, in the same family as The Hives, The Black Keys, and Jack White. However, they are still a lot different than any of these bands.

Teen Mortgage

I had heard of but never listened to Teen Mortgage before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I actually liked all the songs they played, which is extremely rare for openers in my experience. Usually I’ll like some or most of the songs, if anything; but with Teen Mortgage I really thought all of their songs were really cool and great to mosh and two-step to. They sounded very similar to Death From Above, but more on the punk side. There were also only two members, so they were a great choice for an opener. I will definitely listen to them more now.

You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine played in full

Death From Above’s debut album is my favorite of theirs, and I honestly had no idea they were going to play it in full at this show. So it’s an understatement to say I was very pleasantly surprised! As soon as they played the second song on the album, I had a suspicion that’s what they were doing. But I just kept getting happier as they played more songs. The whole album is so good all the way through, and it’s also a great album for a live show because it’s very energetic and makes you want to dance and run around in circles.

In addition to playing their first album all the way through, they played more of my favorite songs from different albums of theirs, such as The Physical World and Outrage! Is Now. It almost felt like a dream where you see your favorite band and they actually play all the songs you want to hear. There were only a few songs they played that I wasn’t familiar with, and a few more songs I wanted them to play but I mean how can I complain??!

Great energy from crowd and band

The crowd was moshing throughout the whole show…and I mean the whole show. It seemed like everyone was super into it and having fun. Since we were in the middle of the crowd, we couldn’t avoid the mosh pit, but I was enjoying it. I ended up further back than I started, so I had to enter the mosh pit again during “Nomad” to make my way closer–especially since this song is one of my favorites and goes so hard. It reminds me of “Jumpsuit” by Twenty One Pilots in a way, with the exciting galloping guitar and intense drums. It’s just so epic.

The singer and drummer, Sebastien, was funny too. He told us a quick anecdote about writing one of the songs that involved a can of soup that he couldn’t open.

For “Pull Out”, HXLT joined the band onstage for some supporting vocals. I hadn’t heard of him before but he did a great job and was very energetic.

After a few seconds of playing “Go Home, Get Down”, they had to stop because Sebastien wasn’t able to hear anything in his in-ear system. Despite this, he said they were just going to start again even if he wasn’t able to hear anything, because they didn’t want to stop the flow; and they restarted very quickly. I don’t know if the sound crew was even able to fix the issue, but they didn’t have any issues after that, so either way they did an amazing job.

The cherry on top

For the last song, they gave the crowd two options. I don’t even remember what the other song was but as soon as I heard them say “or the Halloween song?” I screamed “HALLOWEEN SONG!!” from the top of my lungs, because I knew which song it had to be: “Right on, Frankenstein!”

I’m pretty sure they heard me, because they played that song, along with the fact my sister’s friends turned around and giggled when I screamed.

That’s the first song of theirs I listened to and what got me into them. It’s also one of my favorites, perhaps my absolute favorite, and I still listen to it pretty often.

The bass line in the bridge of that song is insane. It’s amazing how Jesse Keeler can make his bass sound like a low guitar, interchanging with another bass, even though it’s just one. And it sounds so satisfying and cool.

In addition, the lighting was cool too. For example, they had spotlights/beams of light that went into the crowd that looked like you could almost touch it; and light beams shooting up to the ceiling, and it kept changing in accordance with the songs.