LIVE REVIEWS

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    The Nation Blue / SixFtHick (Spectrum)

    First Published in Mess+Noise, 2009

    Saturday night’s support slot for The Nation Blue is the first time I’ve seen Brisbane rock veterans SixFtHick. A miracle really, considering my reasonable pub-rock pedigree and SixFtHick’s 13-year tenure strutting, spitting, sweating, screaming and slapping themselves across Aussie stages everywhere. “If you’ve never witnessed a SixFtHick show you’ve either been living under a rock or you’re in jail for murder,” states Geoffro Corbett on ...

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    Wolf and Cub (Oxford Art Factory)

    First Published in Mess+Noise, June 24, 2009

    Sometimes, nothing can sum it up better than commentary from the random pissed guy, lurching through the crowd with his schooner. Wolf & Cub are playing their hearts out to a capacity Sydney crowd who all appear to be aged between 18 and 18-and-a-quarter. A casual poll in my immediate vicinity reveals many are primarily here to see tour support act The Scare. From opener ...

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    Grey Daturas (The Ding Dong)

    First Published in Mess+Noise, June 11, 2009

    You know a band’s got volume when you keep your earplugs in for a mid-gig toilet break. It’s the first leg of Grey Daturas’ June/July Australian tour. They’ve recently returned from yet another European tour where – among 20 other dates – they played with Neurosis, Om, Earth and other revered instrumental doom-drone acts. Ding Dong hosts a sparse yet devoted crowd. There’s a good ...

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    Witch Hats (The Metro Theatre)

    First Published in Mess+Noise, May, 2009

    What do you get when you combine an SMS command, a dogged sound dude, and a set played to a sparsely filled Metro Theatre? Echoey, damn echoey, that’s what. Just how Melbourne four-piece Witch Hats like it. Here as support for The Drones, Witch Hats are onstage at 8.30pm. One song in (I don’t recognise it from their debut LP Cellulite Soul) I retreat from ...

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    The Dead Sea (The Hopetoun)

    First Published in Mess+Noise, March, 2009

    Half-way through The Dead Sea’s set at The Hopetoun on Saturday night, distraction begins to creep over me. How, I wonder, am I possibly going to review this band and avoid the words “cinematic”, “soundscape” or “builds into a mesmerising wall of sound”? They’re all apt handles for The Dead Sea’s atmospheric, and frequently ambient, sound. But this is an era when Sigur Ros and ...

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    Eddy Current Suppression Ring (Goodgod Small Club)

    First Published in Mess+Noise, March 18, 2009

    The first time I lost a shoe in a moshpit was in the summer of 2002. Reverend Horton Heat, Great American Music Hall, San Francisco. The second time was at Eddy Current Suppression Ring on Friday night. Losing a shoe to a pit is one of life’s nobler milestones. It’s an act of character. It also generally means the band is really fucking good. On ...