Live Review from Underground 44:
a thumping tortured hardcore mixture of noise that’s hard to get “into”, it’s like a pickup truck ride at a pretty good speed over a dirt road absolutely filled with potholes with no sign of relief in sight. very hard and a bit bewildering, i can’t help but wonder where they get their inspiration. the music is moderately coherent, but the vocals are all over the place – it’s as if they enjoy being hopelessly lost in a nonsensical array of sometimes painful and confused oddness. definitely not for everybody, especially not for naturally happy people, there’s not much joy here, except in the recognition of another horribly tortured soul (if applicable). not quite as hardcore into despair as “Bereavement”, but still pretty down, with just enough rock to still keep you moving around some. logic dictates that they must be, but i’m not entirely convinced by the vocal style that they’re having a pleasant time performing. the audience sure seems into them, i guess that indicates a fair amount of enjoyment of suffering around.
Amos
Live Review from Underground 29:
As soon as An id Signal ripped into their first song, one band name kept repeating itself in my head – The Used, The Used, The Used, The Used. Yep, these guys sound just like Hong Kong’s answer to those American punk-pop Mormons, The Used. And like that band’s frontman Bert McCracken, An id Signal’s singer Leung Wing showed true rockstar charisma from the start, inviting a wall of their own enthusiastic fanatics to the stagefront. But while their following was impressive, the music itself was mostly guitar-saturated noise to me. Maybe I’m too much of a melody junky? If I am then I certainly didn’t get a fix from this band. However, plenty of others did, so the boys must be doing something right. Competent players with a likeable frontman ensuring good bilingual interaction with the crowd, An id Signal was a good band, but lacked a little musically. But if you like plenty of volume, plenty of energy and plenty of screaming, then go see them – you won’t be disappointed.
Brendan Delfino
