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Live Reviews : Kyuss Lives, Orange Goblin and Red Fang @ Palace Theatre, Melbourne 26/02/2013

By on February 27, 2013

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It’s always funny to see the (at all other times M.I.A) stoner crowd gather in the masses to see one of the legends of the genre- case in point- Kyuss Lives!. They venture out of their dank, dark and smoke infested dens to brave the outside world and bask in all the sludgy sounds glory. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean this in a derogatory way, it’s nice to see new faces at metal gigs once in a while and there was certainly a diverse array of ages at The Palace on this particular evening.

Responsible for the majority of the younger demographic were relatively new comers Red Fang. Now I say new comers despite the fact they formed in 2005 and had their first self titled release in 2009. The reason for this being that I have only heard their name tossed around in more recent years. I was actually quite surprised to see the amount of audience interaction when I walked in a song or two into the set. It definitely looked like a younger audience participating and by the end they were chanting the bands name. I could see the appeal, catchy riffs etc but it did feel like it had a “new school” edge that wasn’t really up my alley. Stoner rock is one genre I want to stay relatively the same.

Orange Goblin then took the stage and I was instantly excited to see Martyn Millard on bass was sporting a Witchfinder General tshirt and I have been on a massive WG kick as of late. The audience broke into huge applause when the mountain of a man that is Ben Ward took the stage with a beer in hand. Despite his intimidating appearance Ward looked over the moon to be down under stating that “it has finally happened”. Opening with Some You Win Some You Lose set the perfect old school stoner tone but the appalling lighting wasn’t doing them any favors. It seemed only the last quarter of the set had decent coordinated lighting and the other three quarters were spent learning how to use the program? After Acid Trail Ward announced that Sydney were 9/10 but already Melbourne had reached a 9.5/10 on the Goblin scale, a delight to any Melbournians ears!

Rounding out the set with Blue Snow and Red Tide Rising the band had executed a fairly flawless set except for one unfortunate moment in which Joe Hoare’s guitar cut out just as Ward yelled “go” for him to kick in to a killer opening riff. However that good British sense of humor remained in tact as Hoare shrugged off the mistake and smiled and alas no one really gave a shit or they were too high to notice.

There was a bit of a wait between Orange Goblin and Kyuss Lives! so I went scouting prime locations as this was a sold out gig. Whoever thought it was a good idea not to allow pass outs for smokers at a stoner gig was clearly baked themselves as the queue for the balcony was a mile long and looked like it wasn’t going anywhere. Finally I settled on a spot downstairs and waited as the crowd compressed to get a closer look. Finally the band took the stage and I could make out the signature Brant Bjork hairstyle in the back on drums…and of course who couldn’t pick the sophisticated strut of John Garcia making his way over to the mic. The band kicked in to One Inch Man to open the set and it wasn’t long till Nick Oliveri was bopping around on bass and Bruno Fevery was making those guitar solos look ridiculously easy.

One of the funny visual aspects of the band is the split down the middle when it comes to personal style. You’ve got Garcia and Bruno in tailored, form fitting clothes with very coordinated movements and then you have the grungey outerwear of Oliveri and Bjork with their free flowing musical style. The band pumped out one classic track after the other with very little pause in between. Tracks included Gardenia, Asteroid, Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoop, 100°, Green Machine and my personal favorite El Rodeo. The audience was going mental from Supa Scoopa… onwards and at one point there were hats and shoes being flung on stage.

I began to feel like Garcia had a sense of boredom about him due to his lack of interaction with the crowd but I quickly realized this was more just his “too cool for school” attitude which by the end I didn’t have a problem with whatsoever. After Freedom Run he applauded the audience, took a sip of his whiskey and broke his silence at last telling the crowd he “wasn’t good at talking”. The band did a great job of making the entire set feel like it was just one big fluid jam session and their timing and just general dynamics were flawless. Next came the obligatory encore which entailed White Water, Allens Wrench, Spaceship Landing and the epic ending with Odyssey. The best thing about this band is every member is so entertaining to watch. From Garcia’s smooth and too cool attitude in his fancy footwork, to the raw and relentless beatings of Bjork, to the endless bopping of Oliveri and the perfectly executed solos of Bruno.

All in all this was a huge night for all Melbourne stoner fiends and I don’t think anyone went home disappointed. All that were there that night will be happy to have bragging rights for being a part of what may well be the last Australian gig under the name of Kyuss.