At the Cobalt on Sunday, June 28

Summer has officially arrived, and after a weekend of muggy heat, it would have been tempting for Vancouverites to spend their Sunday evening at home with their faces a few inches away from the air conditioner. With that in mind, let’s give plenty of credit to the couple-hundred music fans who mustered up the energy to head down to the Cobalt to take in Danish postpunk ensemble Iceage.

The temperature was even more sweltering inside of the venue than they were outside, and there were a few dozen punctual punters in the room by the time Heavy Chains opened the show at 9:20. The trio shares members with notable local punk acts White Lung and Nü Sensae, and this performance found the musicians venturing into psychedelic noise rock, with the vocals rendered almost inaudible by the wobbly effects and waves of punishing fuzz.

The 20-minute set offered little in the way of variety or charisma; there was no between-songs banter whatsoever, and guitarist Brody McKnight spent much of his time slashing at his left-handed axe with his back to the audience. But even though Heavy Chains made no attempt to engage with the quickly growing crowd, it was impossible not be impressed by drummer Anne-Marie Vassiliou’s thundering, rhythmically precise beats.

The room was packed by the time lié took the stage, opening with an anxious track that shifted from sinister goth rock to a full-throttle two-step. This established the tone for the Vancouver three-piece’s relentlessly loud, energetic set, during which guitarist Ashlee Luk and bassist Brittany West took turns delivering brashly shouted lead vocals. “Sorry”, a cut from last year’s Consent LP, stood out as a particularly fiery highlight.

Between bands, concertgoers pushed towards the bar to grab a drink while a DJ spun punk tunes. Then, at around 10:45 p.m., everyone’s attention returned to the front as Iceage arrived wordlessly on stage and wasted no time in tearing into the herky-jerky postpunk assault of “On My Fingers”, the opening track from last year’s Plowing Into the Field of Love.

During this song, the first sound that frontman Elias Bender Rønnenfelt made was an animalistic grunt, somewhere between a growl and a retch. Even once he started singing, his vocal style remained jarring, as he switched between a ghostly croak, an anguished howl, and a hair-raising yell. His lyrics were frequently impossible to understand, and his garbled snarl made it sound a bit like he had a mouth full of broken glass.

Although Iceage’s recent recorded work boasts textured arrangements featuring piano, horns, strings, and acoustic guitars, the band’s live setup was far more raw and minimal. Every song was harsh and distorted, with complex dynamics that relied on anxious buildups and pummelling jackhammer crescendos. The perky swing of “Abundant Living” offered the catchiest melodic moments, while “Forever” displayed a talent for simmering, art-damaged beauty. The real crowd-pleaser, however, was the ramshackle cowpunk scorcher “The Lord’s Favorite”, the careening rhythms of which inspired moshing in the throng up front.

The quartet’s instrumentalists mostly kept their heads down and remained rooted to the spot, although the growing sweat stains on bassist Jakob Tvilling Pless’s shirt proved that he was working hard despite his low-key stage presence.

Meanwhile, all eyes were glued to Rønnenfelt, whose glistening face was partially obscured by dangling locks of hair as he staggered restlessly around the small stage, microphone in hand. His presence was magnetic despite the way he seemingly ignored the audience, and his effortlessly glamorous looks were juxtaposed by the relentless, unapologetic ugliness of his vocals. His performance was particularly feverish on the back-catalogue cut “Morals”, as he thrashed around the stage while bellowing the accusatory refrain, “Where’s your morals?”

After 45 minutes, Iceage abruptly ended the succinct set with a quick “goodbye”, and Rønnenfelt dropped the mike as the group filed off-stage. The faithful clapped for another song, but after a few moments the house music was turned on and it became clear that this request would be unanswered.

Even though the lack of an encore may have been disappointing, there was a silver lining: after the steamy heat of the jam-packed Cobalt, the weather outside felt almost cool by comparison, making for a refreshing end to the weekend.