Living proof that the greatest art can come from the deepest tragedy, Augustines' Billy McCarthy has channelled his troubled upbringing into a suite of crushing, cathartic rock songs.
Many of these can be heard on his Brooklyn band’s self-titled second album, inspired in part by the suicides of his mother and brother.
Given that background, it’s little surprise to learn that Augustines’ live shows are an intense experience. Before a note was played at Koko, McCarthy was punching the air like a prize fighter about to enter the ring.
A quick one-two of Headlong into the Abyss and Chapel Song — about nihilism and jilted love, respectively — announce the night’s predominant themes: anguished lyrics, full-throated vocals and hell-for-leather backing. Juarez saw McCarthy come face-to-face with his demons (“got a drunk for a mother, got a saint for a brother”), while his three band mates — on drums, bass and trombone — sounded like a mini Arcade Fire.
The piano-led Philadelphia (City of Brotherly Love) proved there was melody amid the muscle, the crowd bellowing along to its heart-on-sleeve chorus.
If McCarthy has a tendency towards over-earnestness in song, he was also a funny and frivolous host. When he wasn’t channelling his inner James Brown through a bizarre “funk dance”, he was creating improvised ditties to coffee houses (“Costa Coffee, I feel accosted, paying for something that tastes like faeces”).
Recent single Nothing to Lose But Your Head provided a triumphant singalong, before McCarthy appeared on the Koko balcony to sing an unamplified version of The Avenue.
He may not be able to pull off that party trick in the bigger venues — but that’s exactly where these exhilarating anthems-in-waiting are headed. My advice: be there too.
