DeSalvo @ Stereo, 19 Dec

The scene is in full effect tonight as a triple bill of local fixtures makes the fur stand up on everyone’s back, ladies included. Openers Gummy Stumps dizzily channel The Fall circa-Grotesque by dint of kiwi DIY noise-pop, a bassless swerve reinforced by the punctuated ramblings of Spicy Colin, who occasionally resembles a vagrant that’s stumbled in from the alley and straight up to the lecturer’s podium.

Acoustic guitar troubadour Christopher Mack, sole member of The James Orr Complex, somehow manages to swoon a noisy crowd through sombre finger picking, apparently in elusive homage to both Nick Drake and Bert Jansch.

As consummate metalcore cutthroats, headliners DeSalvo continually head straight for the jugular with their reeling, precision-bound punishment that thoroughly devours Black Flag, The Jesus Lizard and the entire Am Rep back catalogue, only to puke up the mixture on an adoring audience. Master of ceremonies P6 brings the freak through bizarre pantomime and absurdist drama, approximating Punch and Judy overhauled by the Vienna Aktionists or John Waters’ sleazy camp conjured through the inked vessel of a sweat-drenched 20-stone chub. Light years away from played-out costume rock histrionics, this disturbing probe into the theatrical nature of immediacy, forced disclosure and humiliation blindsides everyone in attendance and constitutes the captivating musical equivalent of that infamous scene in Deliverance. Yikes. [Eric Ledford]