Posters around the venue for upcoming gigs in Gateshead’s Sage venue seem remarkably polite. Later in the month, Sting will bring his latest production here, while guests are promised an ‘Intimate Evening with Art Garfunkel’ in September. Tonight, however, there is another beast entirely erupting from The Sage’s smaller Hall Two. Drenge, fresh from releasing their second album, Undertow, are currently tearing Gateshead a new one.

The mood for the evening is set long before the Loveless brothers stalk onto the dry ice choked stage. Fans at the front are already chanting away and pogoing to Nirvana’s ‘School’, which is being pumped out by the PA. Emerging shortly after 9pm, the band, bolstered onstage by live bassist Rob Graham, kick into new album opener ‘Running Wild’. Onstage, the band cut a formidable presence, looking every part the classic three-piece they could eventually be .

This is shown as the band hit their stride fully in an extended breakdown during ‘Nothing’. Drummer Rory, clad in headband and fading Star Wars tee, pummels into his kit. His passionate force and feel for a fill allows him to channel the spirit of Bonham and Grohl. To his right, front man Eoin generates an unholy distortion from his guitar, wrestling with feedback whenever bone rattling riffs aren’t being wrung from it. Tonight, his vocals are high in the mix compared to their records and Eoin often matches his guitar’s ferocity with his voice, often veering from bratty snarl to a vicious howl. These boys truly are the real deal.

Speaking to the audience only to thank them, Drenge appease the crowd by battering them with visceral and raucous energy.  Drenge live are like a huge, rabid dog desperate to break from it’s leash. The band sprint through their set with untamed aggression, firing out fan favorites such as ‘Gun Crazy’ and ‘Backwaters’ as well as new tracks such as ‘We Can Do What We Want’ with pure recklessness.  Slowing down the set for new track, the Smashing Pumpkins-esque ‘Standing in the Cold’, a few members of the audience hold lighters aloft. This move seems applauding tongue in cheek, considering not ten minutes earlier, during ‘I Want To Break You In Half’ Eoin had promised the crowd through his lyrics he would make them ‘piss their pants.’

Finishing with a punishing ‘Let’s Pretend’, Drenge’s set tonight clocks in at just over an hour. While some disappointment is hard to shake, the crowd tonight can hardly complain. The band’s new tracks, while shedding some of the distinctly heavy teen angst that makes ‘Let’s Pretend’ so compelling, show a definite improvement in the Loveless’ songcraft. The audience are told that Eoin and Rory’s parents are present at the gig tonight. You can’t help but wonder what they thought of their son howling, ‘I don’t wanna be fucked, I don’t wanna be kissed,’ to his fans during ‘Favorite Son’.

God help Sting and Art Garfunkel when they have to follow this.

Callum Sullivan