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Live Reviews : Saint Vitus, Monarch, Clagg @ Hifi Bar, July 20th 2013

By on July 29, 2013

A typical Melbourne winters night played host to what was looking to be a less than expected HI Fi Bar crowd during Melbourne sludge veterans Clagg. The five piece presented their doom with a monolithic stage presence amidst the wash of orchestrated distortion and feedback whilst a small but slowly building crowd was spread awkwardly around the room, with one or two devoted snail-paced headbangers in the front row. With the guitars holding a consistent resonance through the entire set it was hard to differentiate between songs (especially for a first time listener) but the 11 years experience held by Clagg did not go unnoticed, from the dialed guitar tones to the drummers flawless hard hit time keeping. With several hundred people yet to arrive vibes where low as Monarch set up to play.

Being no strangers to Australian soil on their third visit since supporting Wolves in the Throne Room in 2010, Monarch appeared to have a small yet dedicated following amongst younger members of the crowd. It became apparent that Monarch might not have been the appropriate support for Saint Vitus with a vast majority of attendees showing no clear interest

This time, Monarch performed without their usual singer in Emilie Bressen and instead called on the support of a fill in. The vocalist transformed her shrieks and moans through an array of effects and acted almost as a synthesizer adding the necessary consonance and dissonance to the bands apocalyptic sound. They rolled through a set that resembled a wall of discordant drone that morphed what were several songs into one. All members fixated on the drummer Rob Shaffer as if he were the conductor, who moved in a hallucinogenic slow motion as if he were in complete accord with the bands overall tempo.

The band rounded out their performance with a cover of the Pentagram classic “Forever My Queen”, in hopes to maybe connect with the older more traditional doom fans in the audience. With sing-alongs and raised horns, this proved to be the height of crowd involvement for Monarch.

Within moments of Monarch ending, the crowd migrated to the front and it began to feel like a gig.

“THIS IS SAINT VITUS” exclaims guitarist and founding member Dave Chandler. The Hi Fi Bar was now close to full, and the audience, all with smiles on their faces began banging their heads to “Living Backwards”. Vocalist Scott ‘Wino’ Weinrich hunches over the microphone, very similar to his fore father Ozzy Osbourne, whilst gazing sadistically into the audience demanding their attention.

First song in, the mood was lifted and it was clear that tonight was all about the pioneers of American doom.

Although aged and greying, Saint Vitus sound and look as if it was still the early 1980’s, from the long hair to the tight black denim along with Chandler’s distinguishable guitar tone and Wino’s bluesy roar. Smashing through older songs like “I Bleed Black” and “War is our destiny”, Vitus then proceeded to dedicate a five song portion of their set to their 2012 album Lillie: F-65, which surprisingly sparked as much crowd participation as the classics.

With what Wino declared his favorite part of the set, Vitus go on to play songs from a period of the band prior to his involvement. “White Stallions” and “Saint Vitus” being somewhat faster jams saw some fans attempt to “mosh” whilst Wino handed out a half drunk bottle of Jack Daniels for the more stationary individuals to share around. Saint Vitus say goodbye with three songs from their most acclaimed release “Born Too Late” which concludes with Chandler jumping into the audience, leaving his guitar to feedback against the foldback and watching on as if he was a member of the audience.

Despite the lack of attendance early in the night, Saint Vitus brought together a well deserved crowd of young and old.  Playing a set that outlined the best of their 35 year career and filling a long endured void in fans, who at one point may have thought experiencing Saint Vitus was never going to happen.

Check out our gallery of photos from the night.

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