|
The Step Inn - Thu Jun 11
With a shark for a drummer, The Vaginabillies are an engaging and partially hilarious warm-up to the ridiculously cold Brisbane eve. Next, SixFtHick are a Cruel Sea cover band playing original songs. Cynicism aside, their cuts of bluesy garage punk are a strong addition to tonight’s bill. Over in The Step Inn’s rarely utilised corner bar, a crowd has gathered around Slug Guts. With a relentless wall of noise technique and a vocalist walking on the bar, spilling people’s beverages, Slug Guts are a spectacle. Then Flipper take the stage and a dude in a shark costume playing drums seems tame in comparison. With his voice hamstrung by a nasty sounding cold, vocalist Bruce Loose’s contribution tonight is largely to stir mischief. And just that happens, Ted Falconi’s hypnotic riffs and Rachel Thoele’s rolling bass lines degenerate placid hipsters into raging scene warriors as the pit rips open, fights break out and put-upon bouncers try to keep everything under control. Frontman Loose is not a musical genius – tonight members of the crowd invited onstage are better vocalists than he and his contribution to Flipper’s records could only just pass as singing. Rather, the man is simply a genius; disinterested, laconic and alienating, he has squandered his potential playing in a rock & roll band and he knows it. His banter between songs is as cutting as tracks like Sacrifice, Life and Survivors Of The Plague. After nearly an hour and a half, when Loose’s voice is shot, the amps are switched off, the wall of feedback punctuating their iconic hit Sex Bomb ceases to be and the crowd walks away from the show, some feeling cheated, others blessed. Regardless, the beauty of witnessing a band that makes an audience pissed off, confused, bored, bitter, morose, dumbfounded, disorientated and fucking elated is not unappreciated.
TOM HERSEY
|
| Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Poster's IP addresses are logged. |
|
Be first to comment on this article
