BAND: LIKE THIEVES
VENUE: THE ANNANDALE HOTEL
DATE: 16/11/13
SUPPORT: RED REMEDY, WE WITHOUT, MANDALA
We departed Rivendell under the watchful eyes of Elrond. An elite
representative of each race would band together to form the fellowship of the
birthday pub crawl. Our mission was a simple one; to get the birthday girl to
the fires of the Annandale hotel so she could look upon the face of her beloved
Clint Boge, maybe slaying a few orcs in the process. Like Vikings, we pillaged every
tavern along the way, relieving them of several tankards of amber ale. It didn’t
take long for inebriation to assume the role of autopilot and before we knew
it, we had stumbled across the historic venue. Torrential rain farewelled us
with an icy kiss as we entered the iconic live music sanctuary. The foyer was
alive with excitement. Weary travellers who had braved the weather were huddled
around the bar, wide eyed with anticipation for the events that were about to
unfold.
The band room itself smelt of stale beer and a soothing Gregorian chant
sample was ushering in opening local prog rock act Mandala. An eager mob of around 20 rowdy fans had already gathered
at the front of the room, standing close enough to lick the shins of any musician
unfortunate enough to brave the front of the stage. The Sydney quintet immediately
caught my attention with their delayed, reverb laden guitar work which created
an ethereal ambiance within the room. This was quickly washed away by the
backing track becoming far too loud in the mix which caused all the talented
musicianship taking place to amalgamate into a bass heavy fuzz. The entire band
seemed to be suffering from stage fright with the exception vocalist Robert
McGinn who was confident leading his troops into battle. His vocals at times beared
a loose and reserved resemblance to Forbes Mckail (Rook, The Khyber Belt).Everything
seemed to fall into place three songs into the set. The sample was turned down
and the gargoyles on stage came to life. Guitarist Rodney Cross’s eyes opened
wide and he froze like a deer in the headlights when it became his turn to
provide backing vocals. Surprisingly though, the backups were a perfect accompaniment
to Roberts cautious vocals. There were great uses of multiple vocal melodies and
the harmonies were spot on. The set was a slow and grinding start to the night demonstrating
musical influences ranging from Dead Letter Circus, Breaking Orbit and Neotokyo
to the more exotic such as the sitars of India. I was left a little
underwhelmed by the end of the set as the songs tended to plod along and never
seemed to accumulate to anything mind blowing but the boys had done enough to convince
me to purchase an EP. Mandala show great potential and should hopefully
appear soon on the radar of prog fans everywhere.
The room had filled up a bit more while Sydney quartet We Without took to the stage however
the hordes chose to graze around the back of the room. Heavily grunge inspired
with a hint of new metal, I was taken on a journey back to the 90’s where this
style of music reigned supreme. In the half hour set I heard Powderfinger,
Alice In Chains, Hoobastank, Ill Nino and Soundgarden with vocalist Chad
Elliott sounding strikingly similar to Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam. Chad struggled
to reach his multitude of high notes so much that his face resembled a bottle
of undiluted raspberry cordial by the end of their set. The whole time I felt
as though I was watching a covers band and it is a sad admittance that the one
enjoyable song of the set was a cover of Ou Est Le Swimming Pool’s “I Just
Dance The Way I Feel”. We were also treated to a swing dancing couple up the
front of the room mid set, presumably one of the member’s parents. With a busy
and needlessly complicated sound, We Without were a very disappointing second
act.
We barely had time to down another round of scotches before being swiftly
kicked in the face by the most misplaced band of the night, Red Remedy. The multi genre goliath exploded
from the firing line with their brilliant fusion of abrasive punk, metal and
rock. The room was wary and kept their distance for the first few songs as the
Sydney foursome unleashed hell on stage. Leigh Czerwonker’s crunchy, grating guitar
work marinated Adrian Booths fat, juicy bass riffs. Jess Rossiter was a monster
behind his transparent drum kit, making excellent use of the toms and resembling
Foo Fighters Taylor Hawkins in both manic performance and appearance. Charismatic
front man Zach Evans punched out an incredible vocal effort. He had an awe
inspiring scream and his clean vocals were an eerie mixture of Brandon Boyd of
Incubus and Brian Molko of Placebo. He seamlessly transitioned between the two
and was pitch perfect the whole set. His on stage persona was cocky and brash
and it worked for him. He threatened to not play anymore songs until the crowd
moved forward and without hesitation we gladly moved closer to this architect
of entertainment. I found myself tapping my foot to every song which were
overloaded with influences from the bands I grew up with. Deftones album “Adrenaline”
was at the forefront with layers of System Of A Down, Rage Against The Machine,
Disturbed and Sevendust rounding out this full, beefy sound. The double kick
was applied liberally and syncopation between all instruments was abundant. High
energy performance, amazing on stage chemistry and brilliant genre fusion mean it
is only a matter of time before Red Remedy become a major player in the Australian
live music scene.
A Perfect Circles “Judith” came through the PA and stirred
something within everyone’s loins as the full attendance starting either
singing or head banging to the song. The half capacity Annandale hotel was getting
more eager with every passing minute. You could cut the anticipation in the
room with a sweet potato. There was no secret who every person in the room
tonight was there to see. Like Thieves
marks Clint Boge’s most promising act since leaving recently reformed The
Butterfly Effect and the expectations for the band were very high. Thieves take
to the stage and receive an average reception. Predictably the Boge fan girls
erupt when the veteran ascends the dais with a huge smile on his face and a
fabulously filthy Movember moustache. They don’t waste any time and immediately
wind the room into a frenzy. My initial realization is that it is going to be
impossible to review LT without comparing them to TBE. The songs from the debut
EP “The Wolves At Winters Edge” represent the direction that Butterfly Effect
could have taken after “Begins Here” instead of the fan dividing “Imago”. The
start of their set had some really poor mixing with Boge’s vocals being lost in
the wall of sound which is not something you want to happen to the biggest
drawing card of your band. This was remedied by the third song when the
Brisbane prog rock quartet got the crowd singing along to “Killing Reason” off
their debut EP. The mix was crisp as Boge’s trademark operatic voice littered
the air. Guitarist Oden Johansson is amusing to watch perform as his tongue
never enters his mouth as he swings back and forth like a metronome. In terms
of influences, the most obvious musically would be fellow Brisbane act Dead
Letter Circus, Sydney’s instrumental virtuosos Meniscus and of course The
Butterfly Effect themselves. Like Thieves road test a lot of new material in
the set but apart from the awesome song introduced only as “something a little
different”, nothing seemed to grab the audience’s attention. The quality of
sound began to waver yet again as the set progressed. The vocals becoming
muffled a second time was the catalyst that caused a few disheartened punters to
leave the venue early. We were thanked for braving the rain as they broke out
into their closing track “The Wolves At Winters Edge” which was by far their
strongest performance of the night. Like Thieves had a lot to live up to and quite
frankly, fell well short of my expectations. The very fact that I walked home
in the rain with a very drunk girlfriend who was chanting “Red Remedy. Red
Remedy. Red Remedy” had a lot to say about the night.
Joshua Towney
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