Julian Casablancas is best known for being the frontman in The Strokes but his new band isn’t so much “Is This It?” as “What is This?” The Voidz are a melting pot of loud guitars, bad haircuts and songs that take in everything from hip-hop to prog-rock. Their debut, Tyranny, was one of 2014’s strangest releases — and their live show is just as odd.
After an interminable wait, the band began with Instant Crush, Casablancas’s collaboration with Daft Punk and the only thing resembling a hit on show. The ghost of Spinal Tap stalked Xerox, a near-unlistenable track based around a maddening guitar figure and Casablancas’s distorted vocals, while Father Electricity veered left into Afrobeat. Yet, for all that M.utually A.ssured D.estruction sounded like the kind of music they use to “soften up” prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, there were moments of real brilliance. The slow-burning Human Sadness built to an epic crescendo, Where No Eagles Fly was full of punkish menace and Crunch Punch was slinky rock 'n' roll.
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Audacious, awful, inspired, insane — The Voidz are many things but they’re rarely boring. Casablancas deserves credit for venturing so far out of his comfort zone; going there with him isn’t easy but it’s just about worth it.
