A sold-out crowd waited for the experimental hip-hop group Death Grips to take the Paristown Hall stage on Friday night. At the stroke of 8:45 PM, the trio took the stage washed in only red lights to start their setlist of one hour and forty-five minutes ripping through their entire 12-year discography going all the way back to Ex-Military. The backing tracks were programmed to play, never stop, and give no reprieve for rest or applause. Vocalist MC Ride barked every syllable with a certain fury that makes Death Grips sound unlike any other sort of hip hop/punk rock/noise acts that is known by man. Behind MC Ride was drummer Zach Hill. With the programmed tracks having percussion already, Hill filled on top of the tracks with his signature drumming style. A style that is so fast and so hard that it makes one wonder if he despises the very instrument that he has become so masterful at. Keyboardist Andy Morin was absent for this show but filling his position on guitar was Nick Reinhart of Tera Melos fame. A very welcomed surprise as Reinhart’s guitar style is akin to Hill’s drumming. Technical, fast, exciting.
Once they began, they did not stop until the show ended. A 30-song bludgeoning that took no prisoners. It seems that if a beast is pent up for 4 years then it has a way of exploding onto a stage Nik Vechery
