Igorrr Downgrade The Desert By Bringing Their Camel Dancefloor To Mesa, Arizona

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Igorrr Downgrade The Desert By Bringing Their Camel Dancefloor To Mesa, Arizona

I’ve seen the electric and eclectic Igorrr once before when I covered one of my favorite metal festivals, the severely underrated Mystic Festival (Gdansk, Poland) in 2022. I was only able to catch three songs before I had to move on to my next band on my “must see” list for that day. Igorrr fits the mold of one of those bands that are on the, “Hey, you should check out this band!” list that your music loving friends are always blabbering about. I clearly remember that after I edited their photo set from the festival, I wished that I could have caught their full set because I was blown away with only three songs that day. Well, my wish came true and after catching the full set in Mesa, Arizona recently, I knew that I wasn’t the only one blown away that night.

Igorrr isn’t your traditional heavy metal band. They skate the blurred and fractured lines of several different sub-genres within the heavy metal cosmos. For those that know nothing about Igorrr, here is the band line-up. There’s a DJ/turntable frontman, one guitarist, two vocalists, and a drummer. While this set-up isn’t completely out of the ordinary, it’s not something you see often for an extreme metal band. Every member in this band is fully utilized and showcased at some point during their set. There is not a weak link in this band as far as musicianship is concerned. Their live sound is almost identical to their releases and much of their set this night consisted of material from their most recent release, “Spirituality and Distortion.”

Kicking off their set with “Paranoid Bulldozer Italiano,” Igorrr proceeded to rip through an impressive 17 song set. Throughout the show, we witnessed the genius behind Igorrr, Gautier Serre, switch back and forth between his turntables and a six-string axe. The amount of creativity in Igorrr’s songwriting is better understood when focusing on Serre during his time behind his setup. Serre is the brainiac behind the musical juggernaut that is Igorrr, but without his bandmates to put his musical genius in motion, I’m guessing it wouldn’t be anywhere near a captivating live experience as it stands currently.

The two vocalists in Igorrr are the Yin and Yang to their overall sound. Both of them can growl but when it was time for the sopranos, Marthe Alexandre handled those to perfection. There was one point during the show she crested several octaves causing even myself to cup my ears. Since there is no actual live bassist in Igorrr, the guitars and drums make up the rhythm section. Tonight, that aspect of Igorrr was fire. I had great vantage points and was able to observe both of them on their respective sides of the stage. I might have mentioned this already, but the musicianship in this band is amazing.

When I’m at shows, I tend to check on the crowd from time to time to see what their reaction and engagement level is while the band is playing. You know how on some messaging apps when you use the red heart emoji, a bunch of red hearts flutter upwards? That’s the best way I can describe what the Mesa, Arizona crowd was feeling that night. For me, the feeling was euphoric and I was completely entertained throughout their whole set. It was one of my favorite shows of the year and for reference, I’ve seen no less than 50 sets so far. Igorrr may not be for everyone, but for those that are looking to expand their heavy metal horizons, this band just might be your marmalade.