Reviewed onSaturday March 12
How do you know Kirkis has lived through an apocalypse? He recorded the whole thing on a tape machine and now plays it in reverse at music venues around the country. During his early set, some leave by foot and others by alternative means.
Making bring with them glitches and untraceable time signatures, but the loudness and tone of a doom band make them an unmissable second support act. The Sydney locals recently played with Battles and The Mark Of Cain, and fortunately their homage to brutality and primordial music is being recognised by bigger names.
The recent debut LP from Melbourne’s Mangelwurzel, Gary, makes the brain take unexpected hairpin turns. Live, it makes the body take unexpected hairpin turns. Frank Zappa is a good reference point but doesn’t go far enough.
The seven-piece play most of the new album, with ‘Fishy Fry’, ‘Hawaii’, ‘My House’ and (from 2014’s Dead Pets EP) ‘Bye Big Baby’ all electrifying. Halfway through, Cosima Jaala lights and throws out every cigarette in her deck, requesting for us to “bum the duzza”. It’s punk as fuck, as these spectacles then merge seamlessly into songs about ketamine and ‘tears making the garden grow’.
Closer ‘Gary’ ensures the set ends as chaotically, sexily and chaotically sexy as possible. The centre-stage presence of Jaala and the horn section may distract from the complexity of the music, but it’s some of the most rhythmically, melodically, harmonically and structurally challenging and engaging rock music being played right now (and have been doing so for years).
