Full of Hell and Nothing ‘When No Birds Sang’ at The Mayan, Los Angeles

In December, 2023 shoegaze luminaries Nothing and grindcore innovators Full of Hell released the collaborative effort When No Birds Sang, an album loosely conceptualized around a fictionalized day in the life of a victim of the 9/11 World Trade Center attack.  On Friday, July 12th, at The Mayan Theater in downtown Los Angeles, as a part of the Sound and Fury kick off week pre shows, Full of Hell and Nothing performed the album live and in its entirety for the first time since its release.  The irony of performing an album so devastating in concept as part of a kick off celebration was likely not lost on either band

The show was opened by Terror Cell Unit, the power electronics music duo of Mack Chami and Sam Torres out of Oakland, California.  An auditory onslaught of discordant sound, Terror Cell Unit channel their disgust with the chaotic and incongruent world around them into a sonic assault that makes tangible the dark inspiration behind their music. The duo went off and the packed theater was charged with energy as the set came to a close and cheers filled the room.

Philadelphia shoegazers TAGABOW (They Are Gutting A Body of Water) took to the stage next and performed in their signature style, with members facing inward in a circle rather than facing out toward the audience.  This unusual permutation gives their set an otherworldly nature, disconnecting the audience from the individual players and allowing the music to rise and speak for itself. A sonic dreamscape of shoegaze punctuated by electronic samples and moments of abject distortion, TAGABOW entranced the audience, a soft landing after the crushing electronic assault of Terror Cell Unit.

At last, the headlining moment was upon us. The packed theater erupted in cheers as the opening sample of “Rose Tinted World,” the first track from When No Birds Sang, filled the theater and Full of Hell and Nothing took to the stage. Over the next 33 minutes, the theater fell to near complete darkness with the exception of a masterfully executed light show accompanying images projected on a screen behind the bands, all courtesy of Zachary Rodell, a San Francisco based visual artist who frequently collaborates with Nothing to bring a unique atmosphere to their performances.

The concept behind When No Birds Sang makes for dark storytelling, but somehow Full of Hell and Nothing both manage to find the heavenly in the hellacious, the relief in despair, and the fury in finality.  As the songs swung back and forth between aggressive grindcore and ethereal shoegaze, the complementary nature of such contrasting sounds became suddenly clear.  Played live, accompanied by visual effects, and in the company of a packed theater of like minded individuals, When No Birds Sang reaches new heights and the music and lyrics take on new life as the audience is forced to face the terror and beauty of finality through the soundtrack only Nothing and Full of Hell could have jointly conceptualized. What at first seems like two genres entirely at odds with one another becomes a beautiful pairing, each sound accentuating the other for maximum listener impact.

Their performance came to a close as the final distorted notes of “Spend the Grace” rang out and a static display of tv noise played on the screen behind the stage.  As the song ended, the audience once again erupted into applause, clearly moved by the performance of such a beautifully impactful album.  The entire evening had been an exercise in heightening sensation through contradiction. From the chaotic assault of Terror Cell Unit to the melodic shoegaze of Tagabow, the evening swung wildly between heavy and light, but there was beauty in the chaos, much like the union of Full of Hell and Nothing itself.