Reviewed on Saturday May 23 (photo by Prudence Upton)
One of the more noteworthy shows put on for this year’s Vivid festival ended dramatically with punk rebellion, confusion and the riot squad, and is sure to be talked about for years to come.
Repressed Records presented a showcase of six bands, trying to encapsulate all manner of variety in Australian indie music. A noble idea, but when the headline act is one of the most cherished hometown acts of recent memory and they’re playing their first official gig in over a year, you’d forgive the audience for not having much interest in listening to free jazz or minimalist piano.
Things got off to a good start with the debut of Snake & Friends, a new six-piece project from the prolific Al Montfort. They began by mining Spacemen 3/Sun Ra territory, with two saxophones and mantric lyrics. But the rest of their set was given over to material close to Montfort’s efforts in Dick Diver paired with delightfully complicated basslines.
After that, the bands got more disparate. Superstar were dream-pop indebted to Beach House, and like other imitators of that band, were pleasant enough to listen to but had no live dynamics. Exhaustion followed, whose free jazz set ebbed and flowed in intensity, but sets like theirs are dependant on the mood in the room, and they weren’t getting anything from the Royal Headache crowd. The same problem plagued Monica Brooks, who played a 20-minute minimalist piano piece similar to those of Julius Eastman.
Brisbane’s Blank Realm were up next, and the night got back on track. They played bright indie dance, and while the performers were extra sloppy and their dancing was wildly out of time, they gave off a dorky, uninhibited joy that fed into the crowd and reminded them that this was a show that they could actually engage in.
The long-awaited return of Royal Headache finally came, and it didn’t disappoint. Shogun immediately started prowling around the stage, seemingly at war with his own head. They have a female keyboardist now, and she fits in well. The band previewed some new songs, and if those are anything to go by the second album will feature tracks double the normal Royal Headache length (around three minutes), with a more pronounced soul influence.
A few songs in, they hit the trinity of ‘Psychotic Episode’, ‘Down The Lane’ and ‘Girls’, during which the crowd up front all stormed onto stage – something you’d never expect to see at the Opera House. The looks of disbelief and joy exchanged between drummer Shotty and bassist Joe were mirrored around the entire Joan Sutherland Theatre. It turned into a celebration.
A celebration that lasted only three minutes, that is, for in an instant a swarm of cops had arrived – security had apparently panicked, and tension and confusion filled the room. Five minutes passed before the stage was cleared, the band pleading with the crowd not to do anything stupid. They played another song, a subdued cover of Womack & Womack’s ‘Teardrops’, before the gig stopped for good.
For approximately 28 minutes, Royal Headache were back. The vitality exhibited in those 28 minutes made all the tedium beforehand completely worthwhile, and the dramatic end means it’s one for the books.
