Two forces are at play at the Savages show tonight: restriction & excess. Four black-clad silhouettes take over the stage; their black shirts and pants suggest a uniform, a color restriction that focuses the attention of the audience on the dimly lit stage. The band's plea for the restricted use of phones and cameras, those lit screens held up with the hopes to capture an ever fleeting event, is a forcible attempt to seize you in their space. Savages want your whole presence or they don't want it at all.
The intention is to bring you to inhabit an area of an excessive presence (yours & theirs) where their music is possible. "I Am Here", the first song in last night's set list, is a statement of purpose revealing that intent. Their presence is stated musically, and it's absolute Staccato and spiky guitar chords, a bass like a motor coupled with chugging, tom-heavy drumming propels their music into a dark swirling tunnel of noise where the band disappears after a 10 + minute closer "Fuckers" ('Don't let the fuckers bring you down'). The lights go out, no encore, their absence is now absolute.
