Last Night: Fuck Buttons Bangs Heads @ the Troubadour

Justin Jasper

Where's Andrew Hung?

​Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power, better known to those who know as Fuck Buttons, play house music for AC/DC fans, which is one of the reasons that their intense, droning set at the Troubadour drew a lot of headbanging. I grew up as a fan of metal. Intense, violent, cathartic music: all terms which could describe Fuck Buttons' sound.

They make noise; sometimes the soundtrack to a heart-pounding mental breakdown, sometimes that of eyes-rolling-back blissed-out ecstasy, but they make noise. In their live show, the rolling waves of distorted melody over the bass-heavy drum machine (and the occasional live drum played by Power) rattle your chest, and it doesn't let up for their entire set.

Justin Jasper

​No applause breaks, no "songs" to single out. Sure, they played "Sweet Love for Mother Earth," and "Ribs Out," but now they were just movements in the larger work. And for once, and I am assuming this speaks for them, the crowd at the Troubadour was more into the show than their phones. All in all, it was a blistering performance. Even if Hung was wearing a Where's Waldo beanie the whole time.