Drenge are an English two-piece grunge based in Castleton in Derbyshire. The band is made up of Eoin Loveless on guitar and vocals, and his younger brother Rory, on drums. It’s fair to say the two have put in all their effort to get to the position they’re in now and we will be hearing a lot more from them in the future. Supporting the likes of Arctic Monkeys over the 2013 summer festival period and the likes of Peace on their 2013 November UK tour, Drenge have managed to bag themselves an NME award for best album and a nomination for the NME awards for best album after making arguable one of the best debut albums of the year.
So after their string of festival sets, support slots with Peace and an incredible self-titled debut album. After picking up the awards, it’s not likely these guys will be playing venues as intimate as the Plug for long. The news of the small venue gig, in the hometown of the greatest band in the world certainly was going to be a sell out, to no surprise the judgement was right.
A brilliant album and a brilliant band and a brilliant . But live? Well that’s a completely different story. YouTube videos and an amazing album put across a fake judgement of the Derbyshire brothers.
After much anticipation from the whole venue, the brothers sauntered on-stage to claps and screams and launched into track one of their debut, People In Love Make Me Feel Yuck. Their stage presence appeared casual and could even be considered shy. Barley word was uttered between songs and honestly nothing much could be said for the songs. Despite the immense album, their presence in the poor venue was dreadful. If such disappointment could be created they did it, with dreadful vocals and poor attempt at entertainment. The night was a waste.
Aside from a couple of teens clinging onto the cool look and trying to claim the night was brilliant, the only highlight was the crowd. It was beyond rowdy as you might expect of a Drenge gig. The mosh pit involved a bunch of adolescent wannabe and the occasional people who actually enjoyed the atmosphere of gigs with uncontrollable boys throwing themselves to the stage in an attempt – and fail – of a crowd surf. Slightly entertaining some might think, but it didn’t subtract from the utter shamble of the performance. Drenge have created a fake image of music through an disappointment of a live act.
