Going Trash Star Crazy
After most concerts were pushed back or outright canceled, this was my first show in the “post-covid era,” which is rather ironic given Drain Gang’s fans are best described as terminally online. For most fans though, felt almost like a pilgrimage — we’re probably not going to see them in North America again (or at least for a very long time). It’s also a testament to these unseen faces of the internet that the first time Drain Gang shares a stage is on a world tour.
Swedish cloud rap collective, Drain Gang, are the godfathers of internet music as we know it. Their sound is symptomatic of a generation both obsessed and bored with excess, a kingdom built from the hell and glory of SoundCloud at its creative zenith. Their hollow, glacial style seems to exist in an emotional hinterland, with feelings flatlined in swathes of autotune. In its absolute emptiness, people found feeling.
Drain Gang have pushed the parameters of what it means to be emo to the furthest, opposite extreme. They looked through a Swedish lens at American hip-hop and distorted its reflection, taking on the fizzing universality of pop music and exiling it to another, warped dimension. As Drain Gang member Bladee describes it,
“Drain is about loss and gain; it could be good or bad — you could be drained of energy or you could drain something to gain energy. There’s financial, emotional, and physical drains, for example — you could just be draining your bank account at the store. It doesn’t have to be deep. Basically, if I’m talking about ‘eating the night’ that means I drain it for its essence. Everything me and my bros do is connected to that concept — we might drain some blood for good fortune.”
I knew I was at the right place when I started to pass flocks of e-girls smoking Belmonts on the curbs, donning trucker hats and Vivienne Westwood necklaces, with eyeliner sharp enough to cut anyone who looked. The rest of the crowd was the most aesthetically diverse the Drain Gang fanbase has ever been, with fans dressed in head-to-toe Arcteryx, Rick Owens, or Yohji, rocking Drain Gang adjacent merch, and lots of newly minted Y2K emo swag like fingerless arm warmers, mixed with a plethora of other subcultural influences. The girl behind me wore lingerie on her face, over her mask.
Walking into The Phoenix from the rain-soaked streets of Cabbagetown triggered the classic delirium that comes with entering a concert hall; anticipation becomes real, and all chatter is silenced by the painful ring and weaponised bass of the speakers. Instantly I was amongst five hundred people united by the same purpose – Drain Gang’s first appearance in Toronto.
Inside what began as a collection of nervous, sweaty fans who might cry if you yelled at them became a much heavier, lad-centric gathering, with plumes of vape smoke, people who have never worn deodorant, and the sticky smell of blunts hanging in the air (it really did smell crazy in there). With every false alarm of a performance, there is a sharp-elbowed surge forwards: a prickly, communal hunger.
The group’s energy has always matched the pseudo-spiritual happiness of early 2000s warehouse rave culture more than the excessive materialism of trap, but nowhere has it been more evident than in their partnering with Kamixlo. Experimental DJ affiliate Kamixlo satiated the hunger of the crowd, with their industrial Reggaeton, Dembow, and bass-influenced dance [deconstruction] set. As the crowd initially filled in they started with beyond-spacey ambient trance tracks that soon morphed into lurching drones and monstrously distorted vocal samples. As the set hurtled through its emotional rollercoaster, it ran from turbulent, glitched-out drops on a remix of Korn’s “Freak On A Leash” to a bright and melodic kosmiche-reggaeton track, and even a crowd-pleasing remix of Uzi’s “Sanguine Paradise.” Kamixlo’s set the tone sonically and visually, dazzling the audience with strobe lights and fog.
As Kamixlo’s set began to fade into chants of “Free Thaiboy” Drain Gang burst onto the stage to the inviolable banger, Western Union from their iconic collaborative album Trash Island, and the crowd descended into rapturous chaos. The Phoenix turned into one giant pit, it was one of the best openings of a show I’ve ever seen.
With a discography as dizzying as Drain Gang’s, their solo and collaborative projects amounting to hundreds upon hundreds of songs, it was a wonder what the setlist would hold. The group is acutely aware of how to electrify their audience, deploying the most iconic tunes in their arsenal: era-defining “Obedient,” and Trash Island classic “Victim,” to prove that their command was no effort. But in a classic Drain Gang tradition, there are more curveballs than you’d imagine for a world tour, leaving you second-guessing their logic
The setlist was Ecco2k-heavy, which is the realm of Drain Gang sound that can galvanise or alienate certain pockets of the audience. Drawing largely from his stunning solo record, E, peppered with unreleased deep cuts such as “Guardian Angels” and “3rd Crush,” the set took a far softer, attention-demanding turn: you watch, rather than move. While Drain Gang essentials like “Lovenote,” taken from Bladee’s beloved Eversince and “Reality Surf” from the pop-leaning 333 released last year, were dropped, many of his most treasured songs were left unacknowledged.
Bladee’s presence was a bit funny — kinda awkward with a style that has always been akin to a 404-error code. Bladee is a reserved performer, his stage presence is unassuming. He is a scrawny white kid, dressed in baggy clothes, consumed by an oversized zip-up hoodie, wearing a mask that catches the flashing neon lights. He often pulls the hood over his head as if he is shy. It’s a presence that starkly contrasts Ecco2k’s.
Bladee’s music is more suited for a party, which is what many concerts of this ilk are. While outwardly danceable, Ecco2k’s music and overall style may be more suited for a space that welcomes artsier performances. But the back and forth between the styles somehow always matched the crowd’s energy.
Ecco2k’s music is cold, like chewing spearmint gum and hearing E’s material live is insane. The volume, crowd, and repetitive nature of that album becomes hypnotic. You become entranced, captured within his vision.
Ecco2k is one of the most enigmatic, interesting artists of our generation, evoking ideas from Lady Gaga’s The Fame Monster era. Such a unique presence, being an androgynous, pixie-like creature wearing a wig of staccato, girlish pigtails ripped from the pages of a manga, and a black and white graphic tee with a fluffy-cuffed undershirt. His instinct for image has been behind the creative direction for both Drain Gang and Yung Lean’s visuals. When he’s not at the helm of design at Eytys, modeling for Alyx Studios, and pioneering his brand, g’LOSS, Ecco2k is making gleaming experimental pop that feverishly interrogates self-image, perfection, and the weight of being seen.
Contrasting most of the songs he played, “Blue Eyes,” an unholy mesh of fear and primal anger, the crowd kicking up violently as Ecco2k threw himself around the stage. The previously calm mood was shattered like stained glass, an oddly placed sensory reset just before the night concluded.
The atmosphere of the night was so oneiric that I’m unsure which song was played last, but with that said, “Girls just want to have fun” felt like a parting gift. In a night of audiovisual extremes, “Girls just want to have fun” is the performance that has stuck with me the most. Picture Ecco2k crooning in stratospheric tones over the song’s warped beat, the crowd going crazy for melancholic euro-pop bliss.
The encore held a surprise that no one could have seen coming, — after playing the euphoric “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and Bladee’s crossover anthem “Be Nice 2 Me,” their final track, “Vanilla Sky” is mixed with The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber’s “STAY,” which feels like the final flourish for a show defined by such disorientating, dream-like ideas.
Nothing Drain Gang does has ever been easily predicted, they are not in the business of meeting your expectations. Their chaos and spontaneity are what draws us back to them, and it’s the ever-renewing surprises that has ensured that their legend, even after all these years, has endured.
