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 Photo: Justin Edwards
First cab off the rank tonight are Boss Level Monster, a local three-piece who have settled on a killer name but seem not to have found their sound yet, as they move between mid-‘90s Radiohead mode and more brutal hardcore. Regardless, they’re energetic and well-practiced – I’m sure they’ll figure the rest out.
Tom Hall, aka AXXONN, is an unassuming guy, and he sets expectations low by loping on stage in a John Farnham tee. Then he rattles us all by creating walls of noise so loud that I fear for my fillings. Showing all the right influences (Fuck Buttons, Growing), he’ll go far in the world of drone.
Tonight’s gig is the last one for Stature::Statue’s drummer James, and the trio’s other members, Luke and Damian, send him off with aplomb, crafting tight and jagged post-punk. The kids might not know how to dance to it, but they’re awed by frontman Luke’s incredible energy.
L.A. quartet HEALTH take a long time to set up – something to do, perhaps, with the fact that they eschew laptops and samplers in favour of creating their noise manually with a bewildering array of guitar effects units and other analogue devices. Once everything’s rigged up they open with the onslaught of Death+, before moving on to Crimewave (famous for its Crystal Castles remix, but much better in its original, abrasive incarnation). Perhaps predictably, blog favourite Die Slow gets the crowd moving, but HEALTH’s gig strikes me as the bizarre obverse to the last Fuck Buttons gig in Brisbane. At that show people came expecting drone and got dance; tonight people come expecting dance and get a melange of drone, metal, and hardcore. It’s a short set delivered with venom and intensity, and I for one can’t wait until they return to our shores.
CHAD PARKHILL
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