NAPALM DEATH /

Dying Fetus / Death Vomit

Amplifier Bar
Wednesday, September 1, 2010

“You fucking missed that one, didn’t you? You’ll have to pay more attention to keep up with us,” Napalm Death frontman Mark ‘Barney’ Greenway chuckled to himself amidst the confused aftermath of the infamous 1.316-second classic, You Suffer. Though who can really keep up with the onslaught of the band from Birmingham, credited with redefining grindcore for more than 30 years? Certainly not any of us. But tonight wasn’t only about taking a page from the book of Napalm, it was about getting an esteemed lesson in three different shades from the same brutal chalice – all worthy in their own right.

Indonesian death/grind trio Death Vomit made their Australian debut in an outstanding fashion. Leaving a hefty mark around their home traps after more than 15 years of relentless touring, they finally made their way to our shores. Not a moment too soon, with each minute of their 45-minute set capturing the phrase “ruthless carnage” – so often used to describe their performances. Although their English was indistinguishable most of the time, the band proved that grind knows no boundaries with drummer Roy Agus Tampan’s pounding setting the scene.

Kill Your Mother, Rape Your Dog. There is only one band who coined a song-title offensive enough to make you laugh and cry at the same time, Maryland’s Dying Fetus. Using this track to end off a set that focused purely on all killer/no filler, the three lads were able to showcase tracks off their latest Descend To Depravity (2009) – which Perth didn’t have the pleasure of hearing on last year’s Summer Slaughter tour. Your Treachery Will Die With You, Skull Fucked and Grotesque Impalement got the hair and sweat flying, with the pit easily swayed in a bit of tit-for-tat play as frontman John Gallagher roused all with a bit of metal smut wordplay.

It has been three long years but the four men that make up greats Napalm Death were back. Delivering a set list culled from every era of their prolific history, it was hard not to be overwhelmed by the assault that unfolded. Three decades behind the moniker has done nothing to dampen their resolve, actually making their sound harder, faster and burlier than ever before. And, of course, prowling around the stage – throwing his weight around in a rabid frenzy – was Barney, the lovable bastard that he is, talking to the pit like they were all long-lost mates.

Although he tipped towards the ‘preachy’ side of things at times, it’s hard not to respect a man who uses his lyrics to attack greed, corporate systems, the influence of religion and the nature of political systems – topics all delivering a big “fuck you” to everything people love to hate. Tracks like Life And Limb, from their latest Time Waits For No Slave, were spliced in between classics like Scum and, the obligatory cover, Dead Kennedy’s Nazi Punks Fuck Off – greeted with a “…Fuck all the racists cunts…” comment from a gentleman in the crowd. Pretty damn funny. Ending off with Siege Of Power, the spirits were high for a band that still crucifies a majority of their contemporaries in a grandiose way.  

_JESSICA WILLOUGHBY

HYPERFEST 2010 (Featuring Art Vs Science / Pez / Tim & Jean / Voltaire Twins)

Midland Railway Workshops
Sunday, September 5, 2010

Welcoming in the first weekend of spring, Midland’s annual all-ages music festival HyperFest secured a stellar line-up to ring in its 10th birthday celebrations, pulling out all stops and employing the talents of a plethora of local and national musicians to entice more punters, (mostly) young and old, than ever to trudge down to the Midland Railway Workshops for an afternoon of fairy floss, rides, market stalls, Skate, DJ and MC competitions and, of course, great tunes from a few must-see live acts.

THE MAN IN BLACK / Tex Perkins / Rachael Tidd / The Tennessee Four

Regal Theatre
Saturday, August 28, 2010

“Hello, I’m Tex Perkins,” the lean, black clad figure said wryly, before launching into a killer take on Walk The Line. The mannerisms, the vocal tics were spot on; even the acoustic guitar was held in Johnny Cash’s distinctive high-port position. It was a spot-on impersonation, and you could be forgiven for thinking that was how the night was going to progress, with Tex Perkins retaining the Cash persona for the duration of the show.

PARADES / Split Seconds / Seams

Amplifier Bar
Saturday, August 28, 2010

As any music lover will tell you, it doesn’t matter how well you can thrash or shred if it doesn’t sound good - luckily for the Saturday night crowd at Amplifier Bar, rarely did a section of Sydney art-rock quartet Parades’ set sound as if it wasn’t well thought-out and created with the intent to entertain.

RTR RADIOTHON OPENING PARTY

The Astor Theatre
Saturday, August 21, 2010

The Astor is turning into quite the hip venue these days, with its beautiful art deco interior and Beaufort Street frontage. Enough so that it was taken over by the RTR crew for the launch of the yearly Radiothon fund-raising effort. With three separate performance areas, and a surfeit of good will and good tunes, it was a fitting kick-off for RTR’s biggest week of the year.

The crowd was mostly hipsterish. There was an abundance of facial hair, a few too many ironic tee-shirts, a goodly number of Sweatless sneakers and keffiyehs adorning the crowd that thronged around the Candy Bar, easily the most popular performance area, where local DJ talent like Sardi, Ben Elliot and Mama Cass worked the decks.

Cinema Two was host to a more relaxed vibe. Kynan Tan’s exotic and surreal VJ set made a perfect backdrop to the hypnotic soundscapes generated by Gilbert Fawn, Mystic Eyes, Craig McElhinney and Rabbit Island. The small theatre became a shifting tapestry of light and sound, a perfect chill-out zone away from the manic goings-on of the main stage.

The main stage, of course, is where electronic noise terrorist and serial violator of personal space Tomás Ford was holding court. Now, Ford can rock an intimate venue like a king, and his mastery over a crowd is widely acknowledged, but there was something off about seeing him up on the main stage, isolated from his people in the crowd. His set was excellent, which is par for the course, but after years of witnessing him molest the audience at smaller gigs, it was odd feeling the sudden distance between the performer and his fans.

The Brow Horn Orchestra, however, are made for a big stage. The WAMI champs served up a set of compulsive beats and warm brassy horns, complete with backup dancers and crowd interaction. Easily the highlight of the night, they’re one act you should go out of your way to see live.

The evening was topped off by a typically warm and sassy performance from popster darlings Boys Boys Boys! to send us off into the chill night with smiles on our faces.  It was a good capper on a killer line-up of local talent, and a more than adequate reminder of why RTR remains an important cultural touchstone.

_TRAVIS JOHNSON

DARREN HANLON

Fly By Night Club
Saturday August 21, 2010

We Australians, tend to resist the notion of ‘cultural icons’ and hero worship. If forced to pick an artist that sums up our national psyche, you might hear a few ‘Paul Kellys’, several Nick Caves’ and a couple of ‘Tim Rogers’ but it’s safe to say folk troubadour Darren Hanlon would be unlikely to top anyone’s list.

It’s a testament to Hanlon’s talent, therefore, that he was able to pull a huge crowd of punters to the Fly By Night on Saturday night, as post-election parties loomed elsewhere and storms raged outside.

With his plain spoken, un-affected Australian drawl, it’s almost impossible not to like Hanlon - not only is he modest, unassuming, and endearingly low-key (you won’t find lasers, synth-laced beats or strobe lighting at a Hanlon gig), but he’s also about as talented a musician as you’ll find.

Rolling into one another, tumbling together in a blurry buzz of melody and an emotional mix of youthful enthusiasm and world-weary melancholy, Hanlon’s two-hour performance gave prominence to new tunes from recently released fourth LP I Will Love You At All, playing through the album in its entirety with a slow-growing charm and understated grace that gradually became more powerful as the evening progressed.

The most intoxicating moment of the set came toward the end of epic eight-minute ballad House. As the music swelled to its dramatic climax, Hanlon crooned: “Oh where were the poor little ghosts of the footsteps we’d taken”, creating the kind of musical moment that pulled skin into gooseflesh, before promptly dropping off into its haunting ending. Hanlon has made a career out of these truncated attacks; he knows how to knock his audience over with transcendent harmonies, but also not to linger too long.

Although it’s clear Hanlon isn’t going to start musical revolutions, send critics into a flurry or win over any listeners who aren’t already sold on his breezy folk-pop style, then again, it’s hard to imagine that is the purpose Hanlon sets himself up for – as he exclaimed tonight he has “reached a stage in his career” where he is not creating music to “impact anyone but himself”.

Like much of what he writes about, Darren Hanlon’s music is a simple pleasure. If nothing else, Hanlon has remained a consistent presence, and his live shows still outstanding - as his fans will attest - you don’t simply listen to his music out of obligation, but instead because you are compelled to return to it, again and again.

As tonight’s performance certainly proved, depending on how much time you’re willing to give him, Hanlon might just be the best Australian artist out there today.

_JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD

COLLEGE FALL / American Novelist / The Chris Gibbs Band / The Ghost Hotel

The Rosemount Hotel
Friday, August 13, 2010

With the soft yellowish lights over the bar turned down low and the gas heaters pushing back the cold from the stormy weather outside, the main room of The Rosemount can feel decidedly welcoming and womblike, and that’s a fitting venue for the launch of College Fall’s new album, The Curse of Us.

For while the music they peddle can certainly be labelled indie pop, and at times it sidles right up to the border of rock, it doesn’t come saddled with the confrontational, angry vibe that characterises so much of the contemporary soundscape. A College Fall gig is more of a storytelling session than a shouted manifesto, and the audience is invited to hear songs woven with an intense emotional honesty.

But as College Fall guitarist and singer Glenn Musto says, “The best thing about a CD launch is you get to pick and choose your favourite bands to play with. It’s like being a DJ.” True to his word, he’d selected a series of support acts that, rather than being sound-alikes, all complimented the College Fall sound.

The crowd was still small when American Novelist stepped up. Not a band we’ve heard much from as yet, their influences are firmly rooted in alternative country, and they dealt out a solid and provocative opening set. There’s a hint of The Church to their work, and singer Meike Harman’s raspy, soulful voice is custom-built for the ballads that highlighted their set.

The Chris Gibbs Band was up next, carrying through the country influences, but infusing it with a more hard-edged, guitar driven sound. Gibbs is a flamboyant performer and he commanded the stage in his striking red shirt and black vest combo. The start of the set was marred by some ear-splitting feedback, but that was soon dealt with, and Gibbs belted out an energetic, rockabilly flavoured wall of noise, culminating in the crunchy, raw-boned Building An Empire.

The Ghost Hotel were the penultimate support act. While now a five-piece, they’ve being doing the rounds in various forms for around five years now, and that experience shows on stage. There are serious country-western chops on display here, with more than a touch of Morricone-style choral vocals thrown in, and the end result is like the soundtrack to the best Western you’ve never seen.

And finally we came to College Fall, where vocal duties are shared between Musto’s deeper tones and keyboardist Jodie Barlett’s high-end sound. They had an easy banter with each other and the audience, and the songs from the new album went down smooth and bittersweet. Despite the heartfelt and often emotionally raw subject matter, their music is very poppy, far from the dirge you might expect.

And that’s perhaps the main strength of College Fall; they deal with pain and heartache not with anger or self-indulgence, but with compassion and a strange kind of longing warmth. There’s an emotional maturity and reality to their song writing that puts them streets ahead of their contemporaries. Their work is not a cry of pain, but an honest attempt at communication and understanding, and that makes them an act well worth tracking down.

_TRAVIS JOHNSON

MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS / Dappled Cities / Voltaire Twins

Capitol
Saturday, August 14, 2010

As I charmed my way past security and loped through the big red Capitol doors in shoes not deemed fit to party, I was greeted with a disheartening scene. Where the hell was everyone? Acting on an incorrect starting time for the show I witnessed Voltaire Twins’ final three songs, and a venue utterly devoid of people. Again - what the hell? While looking a bit despondent at their meagre audience their double synth attack was fun and boppy, the perfect warm up for the night. Well, it could have been anyway.

Slowly the numbers began to trickle in as Dappled Cities picked up instruments, and with some gentle encouragement drew everyone in to the front. Realising the gravity of the task they’d been set in getting feet tapping, Dave Rennick – and the rest of the band for that matter – came out bursting at the seams with the clear intent of showing us a good time. He also announced we were to be treated to some brand new material which was received well.

Dappled Cities really came out firing early on, and a good dance was certainly had by the time The Price and The Night Is Young At Heart came around. While they certainly perform a more traditional brand of indie rock music, Dappled Cities’ dreamy echoes, synths and vocals certainly complimented the line-up.

However, the band suffered through quite a saggy middle section to their set after hyping the crowd up so well, and all of Rennick’s earlier enthusiasm had disappeared. Co-vocalist Tim Derricourt, on the other hand, never stopped delivering glorious, high energy vocals. The crowd, now a respectable size, and apparently fashionably late, had finally received their warm up and all was ready for the main event.

Without much flair, unfortunate given the mindfuck music about to transpire, Midnight Juggernauts took to the stage manning synthesisers, guitars and a random stand of god knows what (backstage must have been a chiptune nerd’s paradise with all this tech lying around).Vincent Vendetta wore a boxing robe, and prostrated himself behind the keyboards ready to do battle with some experimental electonica.    

It’s amazing how much the humble smoke machine adds to the atmosphere of a gig, especially when used in unison with the spacious Juggernaut sound that is littered with clever vocals that seemed to come from everywhere. In essence, the somewhat downbeat style of the band is aimed at engulfing the audience in sound – something they did excellently Saturday night.

There was, however, an imbalance of sound that left Vendetta’s voice somewhat hollow and the keyboards too quiet to express the music’s subtleties, but the crowd seemed to get the gist of things. Tombsone and Shadows went down a treat, and the extended Into The Galaxy finished of a cracking show with rock and roll excess.

_BRENDAN HOLBEN

BASEMENT BIRDS / Old Man River / The Sun Orchestra

The Astor Theatre
Friday, August 13, 2010

In the world of supergroups it can go one of two ways. You might find a collection of tourbus-sized egos, or, as in the case of local collective Basement Birds, comprising Kav Temperley (of Eskimo Joe fame), Kevin Mitchell (aka Bob Evans), Steve Parkin, and ‘honorary West Australian’ Josh Pyke, you find four great styles compressed into one, an indulgent but brilliant spectacle of musical creativity. Such creativity was certainly on show at The Astor Theatre on Friday where the band performed the Perth leg of their Good Evening & Good Night tour – a show that was presented by X-Press as part of our 25th Anniversary celebrations.

First-billed local trio The Sun Orchestra proved to be the perfect accompaniment to the other acts, filling the room with their gently melodic mix of moody, introspective, and country-tinged lounge music which paired subtle keys and clear vocal harmonies with tambourine and off-beat-feel guitar rhythms.

Despite performing music stylistically in the same vein as his predecessors, Old Man River’s performance proved to be more buoyant. Showcasing tunes from an upcoming third album while throwing incredibly catchy crowd favourites Sunshine and Believe It into the mix, main man Ohan Rein ellicited mass sing-a-longs and hand-clapping that made for an extremely enjoyable performance.

The beat on Basement Birds is that they’re a kind of 2010 Australiana version of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and after this performance the comparison makes a lot of sense. While CSNY and Basement Birds are all about throwing collective energies together for the sake of the song, after their first WA performance, Basement Birds came off more like the Traveling Wilburys than anything else - a group of merry pranksters cruising through life with tongue planted firmly in cheek.

There were telekinetic group harmonies and balmy Laurel Canyon vibes within this performance, with all four bringing their talents to the table, serving both strong individual dishes and communal platters, gelling together for a diverse feast that more than satisfied the appetite of the group’s inherited fanbases.

Much like the Traveling Wilburys’ canon, Basement Birds perused the sweet spot between its members’ disparate oeuvres. First single Waiting For You was a suitable thermometer for the overall scope of the sound present during their set: with a rocking backbeat, and pleasant slide-drizzled country flourishes heaped over their traded verses.

There were moments of flat-out beauty too, and when the musicians pitched their voices together - as they did on a gorgeous cover of Sarah Blasko’s All I Want - the teamwork really shined through, with a warm and fuzzy acoustic echo bringing all the players together in gentle harmony.

Overall, there was a natural interplay between the players, which lent the performance a relaxed, easy-going vibe. This rabble of local indie-folk heroes put on a strong performance full of invention variation, and quality.

Perhaps supergroup shouldn’t quite be such dirty a word, then?

_JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD

Midlake

Big Scary

Capitol
Wednesday, August 4, 2010

In the past, Splendour In The Grass signalled a time of the year where those in Perth looked with envy at the Eastern States and their bevy of riches in touring acts. However, recent events have seen a change, where many of the bands performing at the festival make the long trek west. One of them, Midlake, made a mid week visit to a considerably more sizable crowd than expected.