Deafkids – Kombi – Coventry – live review

Deafkids – Kombi – Coventry – The Tin Music and Arts – October 13, 2026 live review

Deafkids are noisy, their records are very noisy so I’m hoping for extreme noise this evening. When Joe first messaged me to say they were coming to Coventry my reaction was quite expletive ridden in excitement. I’ve not really calmed down, the Photographer has high hopes too, Brazilian psychedelic noise merchants on our doorstep, yes please!

The stage is full of equipment, a drumkit and two massive bong drums sit on one side with speakers, pedals and electronics on the other. In the middle of the wires and instruments there is a wooden chair and, as the lights go out and the curtains are drawn across the entrance, you see that a long haired figure is sitting with a guitar on his lap.

The first act is Kombi, and it is a long haired fellow on a wooden chair in the middle of the stage. There’s a huge electronic drone and he hits the guitar across his knees, he makes a low guttural vocal and hits it again, and again. It’s just noise, but what a noise it is. He hits the guitar again and the vocal sounds like the deranged ravings of a lunatic. It’s also very very loud. It now sounds like a helicopter is landing inside the Tin, static bass and the guitar cutting in and out, glitching across the chest shaking bass drone, this carries on, over and over and over, it’s now throbbing across the stage with a tiny guitar sound, it gets stronger and it almost feels liek chords and notes which just morphs into feedback. The small notes get swallowed by the strumming guitar that sounds even nastier and more distorted than before. He lifts the guitar and slams it down onto the floor, noise and feedback erupt, a huge sound he leans the guitar towards the backline of speakers and the noise increases again. This goes on and on and on, think SUNN (((O))) but far grimier and dirt encrusted. It goes into static, circling and with that respite from the madness, it falls to silence. It should be a respite from the chaos, but you realise that the noise has kept your head empty of the hell that surrounds us all and made everything fade for a short while.

There are two Deafkids, the drummer with an enormous afro and patterned shirt and the guitarist with a black hoody and long hair. They start with a throbbing synth sound moving up and down, the guitarist plays a recorder over this and the drums start playing the kit and bongos at the sa,e time, the whole thing is already messed with and glitchy, everything gets a little louder and the drums launch into a pattern I can only call Brazillian, it’s ancient feeling, wild and free. The sound gets harder but still flows and over the guitars, drums and noise it appears that the guitarist is singing but I can’t hear him. Not that it matters, this is discordant, mighty and absolutely gigantic. It is immensely loud, louder than usual for the Tin. But this is all about the volume, it adds to the visceral feeling of the music. It resonates right through your guts, music to lose yourself in completely, you can hear the grinding, low guttural vocal now as it echoes around the music. The music is throbbing now, the drums are out of this world, switching from drums to tom toms, it’s a fast low rhythm, strobes kick off and odd noises permeate through the mass, it’s relentless, hypnotic and all encompassing. There’s no getting away from this, you are caught.

The noise drops, there’s a low alien sound, then just extreme noise, loud and blasting. It pauses and then it’s off again. It’s now techno beats as hardcore as I’ve ever heard, heroic noise and then it stops.

Shellshocked people applaud and instantly it’s back to huge drums, funky like a Brazilian demonic carnival, high whistling, samples scattered across the surface and utter mayhem on stage. The guitar is forced into weird high noises and the vocals distort horribly. It’s a samba rhythm, but not like any samba I’ve ever heard before. It skips and judders into full on fast hard core techno with the weird carnival groove and broken guitar, it is utterly brilliant. It goes on and on and on. There’s a low drone, high guitar and immediately a huge hardcore mass of noise again. It’s vitriolic and livid sounding, repetition and volume overcoming everything. The guitarist is screaming and this is relentless. Slabs of noise fall down on us and the drummer goes off script and just plays, it works, both of them seem to be alone in their own world, meshing together a groove and taking it as far as they possibly can.

This is what Deafkids do, I can’t put into words how it makes me feel, it’s just emptying everything out, blanking out the world so all that matters in this moment is the noise, taking it all away and creating whatever chemicals in my brain it wants. I’m overcome, swamped and lost in this immense noise. They carry on and on and on, switching the sounds and rhythms but all you really need to do is experience it for yourself. Nothing comes close to this mass attacking my ear here.

A fantastic gig, a brilliant sound. Deafkids, creating glorious glorious noise.

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Kombi