Magic Dirt -- The Zoo
Magic Dirt, Violent Soho, Gyanism
July 7, 2007
The Zoo, Brisbane
The Zoo has played host to many strange acts, but Gyanism make a fine fist of taking first place in the freak-out stakes. When this reviewer arrives, the six or eight performers on the stage are not so much playing as physically assaulting their instruments. What emerges is a convention-defying aural electronic-percussive assault that blends bass, keyboards and more individually played snare drums than you’ve ever seen in a single band.
Conventional rules of melody or rhythm seem to fly out the window in favour of improvisation, cacophony and sheer volume - culminating in one pair repeatedly stabbing one of the snares in a scene that could have been drawn from Psycho or Lord of the Flies. Drumsticks grate against the pickups, adding to the din, while another pair strip to their boxers and crawl back and forth across the foldback speakers in a strange and deliberate pantomime act. The audience watches entranced - or, perhaps, stunned - and tentative applause rises when Gyanism’s performance concludes. Art or wankery, it’s mesmerising, but so incomprehensible it’d be hard to justify seeing it twice.
Right from the off, Mansfield lads Violent Soho are on fire. The rhythm section of Luke Henry and Michael Richards is tight and focused, Luke Boerdom’s passionate vocals defy his shoegaze attitude and James Tidswell’s guitar is rawer than fresh sashimi as they produce an outstanding set that shows this foursome is simply getting better and better live.
Bombs Over Broadway from 2005 EP Pigs & TV blasts the crowd early on before they toss in new songs Jesus Stole My Girlfriend and Question to Answer. The newer material is more nuanced than their early, unadulterated grunge, yet is never in danger of losing the raucous, seat-of-the-pants feel that defines who they are as a band.
However, tonight, it’s a cover of long-defunct Melbourne indie rockers GOD’s My Pal (also previously covered by Magic Dirt themselves) that blows everyone away. The boys wrench and shove at the gorgeous riff of the original, threshing it to the absolute limit. Sometimes you can take an awesome song and make it even better.
Magic Dirt eschew their pop-infused, mid-career sound tonight for a headlong dive into feedback-drenched fuzziness tonight.
Continue reading "Magic Dirt -- The Zoo".
July 7, 2007
The Zoo, Brisbane
The Zoo has played host to many strange acts, but Gyanism make a fine fist of taking first place in the freak-out stakes. When this reviewer arrives, the six or eight performers on the stage are not so much playing as physically assaulting their instruments. What emerges is a convention-defying aural electronic-percussive assault that blends bass, keyboards and more individually played snare drums than you’ve ever seen in a single band.
Conventional rules of melody or rhythm seem to fly out the window in favour of improvisation, cacophony and sheer volume - culminating in one pair repeatedly stabbing one of the snares in a scene that could have been drawn from Psycho or Lord of the Flies. Drumsticks grate against the pickups, adding to the din, while another pair strip to their boxers and crawl back and forth across the foldback speakers in a strange and deliberate pantomime act. The audience watches entranced - or, perhaps, stunned - and tentative applause rises when Gyanism’s performance concludes. Art or wankery, it’s mesmerising, but so incomprehensible it’d be hard to justify seeing it twice.
Right from the off, Mansfield lads Violent Soho are on fire. The rhythm section of Luke Henry and Michael Richards is tight and focused, Luke Boerdom’s passionate vocals defy his shoegaze attitude and James Tidswell’s guitar is rawer than fresh sashimi as they produce an outstanding set that shows this foursome is simply getting better and better live.
Bombs Over Broadway from 2005 EP Pigs & TV blasts the crowd early on before they toss in new songs Jesus Stole My Girlfriend and Question to Answer. The newer material is more nuanced than their early, unadulterated grunge, yet is never in danger of losing the raucous, seat-of-the-pants feel that defines who they are as a band.
However, tonight, it’s a cover of long-defunct Melbourne indie rockers GOD’s My Pal (also previously covered by Magic Dirt themselves) that blows everyone away. The boys wrench and shove at the gorgeous riff of the original, threshing it to the absolute limit. Sometimes you can take an awesome song and make it even better.
Magic Dirt eschew their pop-infused, mid-career sound tonight for a headlong dive into feedback-drenched fuzziness tonight.
Continue reading "Magic Dirt -- The Zoo".