Gig Review : Car Bomb at Whelan’s – time signatures were harmed in the making of this gig

Review & Photography by Stefan Tivodar for MPM

In spite of what my 7th grade math tutor may tell you, I was never a math genius. To this very day, I feel most comfortable counting just up to 4 (to exaggeratedly quote a well-known Drowning Pool Parody derivative)… but luckily this has never stopped me from enjoying various dubious and ambitious experiments (sometimes quite violently) mashing music and high stakes math.

There’s a lot to be enjoyed in that neck of the woods, from the mind-bending extreme metal mind-bending acrobatics of Meshuggah to the self-labelled “choppy rhythms” of math core giants Dillinger Escape Plan. There’s a lot to be argued about who maths harder but I’ve never seen anyone disputing this: perhaps the supreme feat of endurance in modern math core is surviving a live show by New York Royalty Car Bomb – and how lucky I am: the guys play Whelan’s in Dublin tonight.

As with any feat of endurance, training is in order – and what better way to train for what was about to come than to try my hand at experiencing for the first time Frontierer, the night’s special guests. Their very own website labels the band as “transatlantic noise terror” – from band member origins split between Scotland and the USA to the sounds shared with us tonight, this description checks out. Everything is louder than everything else, there’s little room to breathe in this gnarly rollercoaster of soundscapes that often feels one step away from pure chaos. One really needs a very good sound engineer to fashion a final product from the pulsating mess these valiant artists bring to the world – tonight, I’m happy to report we did have one on duty.

Now, you may tend to qualify the above words as certifying a certain lack of enthusiasm for Frontierer’s efforts. Honestly what the guys offer is indeed an acquired taste but once one does acquire it, it becomes rather difficult to let go. The guitar work of Dan Stevenson and Pedram Valani is rather hypnotic, Luke Coursey’s drums sound epic live and Chad Kapper is truly an entertaining frontman, with proven skills at working the crowd (a few times tonight, straight from the middle of the circle pit).

Their setlist read like a guided tour through the band’s decade plus career (an excellent chance for me to sample the offer), with the lion’s share coming from 2015’s debut album “Orange Mathematics”.  We did get 3 songs from the well-reviewed “Oxidized”, but also two songs from “Ultraviolet Paradise”, an album that has been out for less than three weeks. All in all, we enjoyed a busy 45 minute set following which I’m really curious to learn more about this band and see what direction they may choose to evolve in.

In truth though, nothing can prepare you for the sheer madness of Car Bomb. No wonder they were chosen as openers for Meshuggah’s 25th anniversary European tour back in the day, no wonder Joe Duplantier chose Car Bomb’s Greg Kubacki to take on some guitar work during Gojira’s French tour at the end of 2025. These guys are really good, these guys know how to put on a show.

I’ve had the chance to witness their live performance before, with the added benefit of a stellar sound amplification, at Hellfest 2022. I liked what I heard back then, but here I am, holding on to my camera for dear life while moshers attempt to carve new pathways on the Whelan’s main room floor, questioning my life choices. I used to be one of them – just another kid in a room full of strangers who have collectively agreed to ignore personal space. The strobes are strobing (maybe too) hard, the mothers are moshing with dedication, all while I’m catching my breath, hunting for each time signature change like some weirdo in it exclusively for the music.

And in it for the music I am indeed. There is still a lot of unpredictable and distorted, beautiful chaos to be soaked in warrior-style, but I’ve honestly come to believe this type of music can also be savoured like a fine dish, taking everything in without additional concerns. Maybe this only says I’m getting older, but I now believe the best way of experiencing Car Bomb feels like the one where you simply stay still, glued to the speakers, and take in the mayhem.

On that exact note, mad props to a dude sitting beside me on the right hand side of the stage, air-guitarring all of Greg Kubaki’s parts during the show. A tall order, considering the guitar and pedal gymnastics involved. If anyone deserved a cold one at the end of the show, it’s this guy – kudos, kind sir!

For about an hour and a half, we had on the stage the same four gentlemen who made it all work out back in 2002: Michael Dafferner, Greg Kubacki, Jon Modell and Elliot Hoffman. You can really sense the connection they built together during all this time. The painting of frequencies is perfectly arranged, with no room to spare and no time to lose: we started directly with new-ish offering “Blindsides” (song 1 from the band’s latest EP, released a year ago) and continued mostly with pieces from the latter day catalogue. We had six songs from 2016’s “Meta” (if my memory is still good for something, this album was recorded at Silver Cord, a studio co-owned by Gojira’s Joe Duplantier, and produced by the band with help from Joe – another Gojira connection, yay!), four songs from 2012’s ‘w^w^^w^w’ and “Tiles whisper dreams” played in full. I was expecting these choices, I had no notes.

Now on to the time signatures – which is a bit like asking a goldfish to review the aquarium. There was a lot to try and keep count of and I can point a finger at the culprit: Elliot Hoffman, a metal drummer who has confessed in the past to playing along, for fun, to Steve Reich or Philip Glass. Yes, for fun. Most songs are a drum all-out assault on predictability, a mad scientist’s most excellent concoction.

The band doesn’t play to a click track, which sounds charming on paper but becomes slightly terrifying when you watch four people sail away through an aggressive storm of time signature changes guided by feel alone. Will there come a time when the songs descend into chaos? Will there be too much distortion, too much double bass drum pedal, too much….of everything? Well, having spent the night clinging to my camera while the floor was trying to rearrange itself and thoroughly enjoying the experience, I’m inclined to co-sign on the general consensus of the crowd post-show: we witnessed a masterful performance where skill and feel found an unlikely, excellent balance. 

Is Car Bomb the first band to introduce your kid to rock? Hell no – but Kid Rock did get a weird namecheck once or twice during the night, with a vocal snippet of “Bawitdaba” included by Michael Dafferner at the very end of “Secrets Within”. After a night of heavy, chaotic music and time signatures that would certainly make my 7th grade math tutor weep, it felt oddly right to be sent hope with something I could finally count along to. Next time they’re in town, same plan. See you there?

Frontierer setlist:

1. Ultraviolet Parasite
2. Tunnel Jumper
3. The Skull Burned
4. Mt. Swath
5. The Molten Larva
6. Lightshow Paralysis
7. Exposure & Aperture
8. This Magnetic Drift
9. Mainframe Earache 
10. LK WX
11. Corrosive Wash
12. Bleak

Car Bomb setlist:

1. Blindsides
2. From the Dust
3. Constant Sleep
4. Dissect Yourself
5. Gratitude
6. Scattered Sprites
7. Nonagon
8. Tiles Whisper Dreams
9. Finish It
10. The Sentinel
11. Spirit of Poison
12. Lower the Blade
13. Paroxysm
14. Lights Out
15. Secrets Within

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