We can tell you, with no shred of doubt, that not once in our lives have we experienced what it’s like to have a bag of pick’n’mix smashed into our cheekbones. We can also safely assume that you haven’t either. But imagine our surprise as we gazed across the room at the performance of a band that somehow managed to replicate exactly how we would imagine that to feel, and leave us wanting more.
On October 28 2010 we watched in awe as Dinosaur! Attack! – joined by support in the form Of The Masts and South Of Saturn – played The Gildredge Pub in Eastbourne for the release of their third album ‘Peculiar Events At The Abstract Circus’. The band’s performance was constantly fresh; the vocals of Wildi and drummer Weezey J joined the chaotic screams of bassist Hayman, who seemed in another world playing the stage like a cyclone, as Lex Davids’ guitar assaulted the eardrums. The songs told stories, the crowd were in awe, and as the night drew to a close we felt a genuine twinge of sadness to see it end.
Since that night we’ve been listening to the band’s third album on repeat and doing our best to give them the article they deserve. At first listen someone who didn’t know what to expect of Dinosaur! Attack! might receive a bit of a shock. To say that the band are loud would be an understatement: they are very, very loud. But they’re also four very talented young people that make that work, giving rise to the belief shared by many that music should come first, eardrums second.
Dinosaur! Attack! could be thrown into the same box as The Mars Volta, Alexisonfire, and Fall of Troy, maybe even At The Drive In and Thursday, but at the same time they sound completely different. The band are influenced by what they call “the smouldering culture that lies around our ankles” and seek to bring their music to “a bigger canvas”.
Dinosaur started out in ’07, under a different name, as three nerds that just wanted to make music. Since then they’ve added a fourth member and put out three releases; ‘Immunizer’, ‘With A Bang Or With A Whimper’, and ‘Peculiar Events At The Abstract Circus’.
As far as gigging goes the band say that occasionally they fall victim to people not understanding the message they try to put across. Never-the-less they have played Brighton’s Providence, last year’s Battle of The Bands, and headlined at The De La Warr Pavilion and Eastbourne’s Gildridge pub to name but a few.
Music needs to be interesting, and bands need to be tight to get by; Dinosaur! Attack! have that nailed. Their songs all reek of originality and are character filled narratives about toys, pirates, robots, and werewolves. Not everything about them is like “a fucked up Tim Burton film” though; they also write songs about life.
Wildi and his band slip into the minds of those that hear them, boring down and creating a hole in which to live, one so deep it’s like they were always there to begin with.
WORDS BY ANDREW NICHOLLS
PHOTO BY GRAHAM NASH
