Live Review: Duster - Electric Ballroom, London 29/05/2024
The hypnosis of shoegaze and its palpable generational influence. Duster’s fanbase unites OG shoegaze fans with new generation slowcore enthusiasts.
Hoards of indie rock fans congregated this week at Electric Ballroom, Camden for an exclusive double night of Duster feat. Disco Doom. Having travelled down from Manchester the previous night, the two bands embarked on back-to-back London shows for crowds that pooled out of the sides of Electric Ballroom’s main room. Fans were restless, clambering between one another to find the perfect spot to view the show (which proved difficult among a majority of 6-foot-odd men). The eagerness and energy for Duster and their shoegaze-esque indie rock was evident from the moment the doors opened; Disco Doom, who have a mere 1.7k monthly listeners on Spotify, were faced with an ocean of people. An intimidating position to be sure, but Disco Doom proved themselves to be masterful performers and provided the perfect opener for Duster’s utterly hypnotic symphony.
Swiss duo Disco Doom boasts bouncy guitars, crusty basslines, and unconventional time signatures to formulate their unique soundscape. Whilst perhaps unassuming from the outset, the duo quickly dove into the enthralling heaviness of a specific subgenre under the indie rock umbrella: slowcore. In combining staple slowcore subdued vocals with melancholic tempos and some expansion into experimental electronic styles and vague mathcore influences, Disco Doom brought a swelling energy to Duster’s UK shows that melded each audience member together into one great being.
Duster’s beloved ambience and homemade feel transformed Electric Ballroom into a suburban American garage. With a sweet lack of phones and a hushed appreciation to mutually bask in the vibrations across the floor, Duster fans conjoined to enjoy the harmonic crust and thump of the band’s shoegaze. Whilst Duster’s vocals were occasionally lost in the instrumentals, churning into incoherent monotonous mumblings, their powerful and touching soundscape reverberated across the venue’s walls and between bodies seamlessly. Their sombre melodies and ambient landscape made for an utterly hypnotic experience; every single attendee was entranced by the music and couldn’t tear their attention away from the stage. Clay Parton and Canaan Dove Amber, the masterminds of Duster, played with masterful precision and a delicacy that elicited beautiful distortions that circled the entire crowd from the barrier to the balcony. The crowd’s excitement to see the band live was evident from the sheer number of fans that attended, as well as some small, excitable, yet pitiful, mosh pits. Duster’s hefty finale spurred a much larger mosh pit and a huge and well deserved round of applause.
Originating in San Jose, California in 1996, Duster has created some of slowcore’s staple albums that have resonated with older shoegaze fans and influenced younger generations to enjoy an up-and-coming subgenre of indie rock. Duster’s three exclusive UK shows summoned immense numbers of non-American fans, old and young. It was an incredible display of love for indie rock and its subgenres, and for classic bands such as Duster and smaller bands like Disco Doom.
Words by Erin Hill
Photography by Renée Bennett
