Andrew Veeder on April 4th, 2014

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The Edinburgh trio of Young Fathers brought their explosive live act to the Airliner for Low End Theory on Wednesday night, in support of their new album “Dead.” After an introductory DJ set by Gaslamp Killer, Kayus Bankole, G. Hastings, and Alloysious Massaquoi took the stage just after midnight and dove into a nearly 40-minute set headfirst.

“Queen Is Dead” surged with an energy that its recording could nowhere near duplicate as the three artists took turns equally spitting rhymes, singing hooks and hyping one another like a well-oiled machine, powering through the highlights of their catalog with a playful intensity that won the crowd over. Tracks “War” and “Effigy” swelled from the speaker stacks, while the foghorn roars and percussive bangs of the single “Get Up” drew the biggest response as the trio danced around the stage, chanting the chorus like a call to arms. They closed with “I Heard” from their latest effort “Tape Two,” singing the hook “Inside, I feel dirty” with an infectious enthusiasm, and ended the performance by walking straight out through the audience and down the staircase.

DJ Nobody kicked off the night with a forward-sounding, bass-heavy mix featuring Chance the Rapper, Kendrick Lamar, and Pusha T, full of syrupy low end and tinny high end, before capping his set with Schoolboy Q’s “Man of the Year,” hyping the crowd up even further. Daddy Kev was up next, using his wireless tablet as a MIDI controller to further manipulate his deep and synthy beat selection live and on the fly.

Meanwhile, out back, Gaslamp Killer warmed the packed patio up, dropping Death Grips’ obnoxiously-long-titled “You might think he loves you for your money but I know what he really loves you for it’s your brand new leopard skin pillbox hat,” whose aggressive grime resonated through the younger onlookers, then jumping into some turntablism effortlessly. From the back balcony above, the two setups dueled for attention as the pulsing beats from each reverberated off both sides of your body in a cacophony.

One-man outfit Anenon blew the audience away with his unique combination of laptop, controller, saxophone and vocoder, beginning his set bathed in moody blue light with an extended sax solo before launching into a whirling chorus of snaps, crackles and pops of percussion. He played a vocoder in tandem with hypnotic house beats, and layered looped and echoed sax textures under his live sax and trap beats to put on a wonderfully eclectic and intriguing show.

D-Styles kept it going strong with a booming set featuring Earl Sweatshirt’s “Pre,” Eprom’s “Hurricane,” Ven Dyke’s “Mi No Chump,” and then kicked it up even faster with DJ Rashad’s “She A Go” and “Drank, Kush, Barz” before dropping Jonwayne’s “Mean Muggin” and winding down with The Roots’ “You Got Me.” The visuals provided by Teaching Machine perfectly complemented the sonic bombardment of the space.

Out back, Low End resident Nocando celebrated the release of his new album, “Jimmy The Burnout,” with a raucously fun set, finishing off with “Too Much To Ask” and then performing an encore of “Break Even” to an energetic crowd. Eight years in, Low End Theory continues to be a Wednesday night stronghold, always packed with dynamic performances and spectators ready to soak them up.

||| Previously: Young Fathers’ “Get Up”