TV on the Radio on the Stage

Last night I was lucky enough to bear witness to the organised chaos that was TV on the Radio in person. Having been shifted from the Forum to the Hi Fi Bar (I assume due to low ticket sales, no surprise considering the diffcult, avant-garde nature of the music), TVOTR proceeded to try to blow the roof off the place through sheer volume.
This was the dub-oriented, melodic, soulful intricacies of both of TVOTR's previous albums being rocked to within an inch of their lives. And it was awesome.
The jazz fusion/gospel of 'The Wrong Way' was wrenched out of shape to resemble something like At the Drive-In doing rockabilly, 'Dirtywhirl' eased into a flowing groove before exploding in a feedback-drenched explosion of noise.
There is something intrsinsically thrilling about a band that can come up with more than one way to make a song sound great, and even more thrilling to hear that new way in person. The vocals of Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone blended together to create amazing sounds, all the while making the lyrics absolutely unintelligible, yet still strangely mesmerising.

The encore of 'A Method' and 'Staring at the Sun' switched smoothly from vocals/percussion creating a new texture and feeling, to a wailing cacophony, David Sitek powering away on every pedal he could lay a foot to, pummeling the audience with sound.
The greatest compliment one can pay is that as the noise of the final song subsided, the volume in the room didn't change as the rapturous applause of a sold-out HiFi Bar singing the band's praises took over.