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Live Reviews : Baroness, Batpiss & Child @ Prince Bandroom, Melbourne 09/12/2016

By on December 10, 2016

Images: Sebastian Marino
Words: Mitch Alexander

After a harrowing month long journey, losing three of my party and a few toes to both hyperthermia and sunstroke, I managed to get from northside to St Kilda for the show. I know promoters aren’t to know, and the Prince Band room is a great room in a fine establishment (even if their dinner options seem to be trolling with their level of spicy heat on every single fucking dish), just… don’t throw gigs in St Kilda. It’s ages away and the place is full of people that like St Kilda.

Child were up first, doing a fine job of keeping the old school psychedelic flag waving high and proud (that was a weed joke). While what they do is not usually my favourite thing to listen to, the three piece were engaging and skilled, managing to hold my attention despite 16 year old elitist me craving a breakdown. Their singer was especially great, and during an extended vocal break I really got to appreciate how fucking on point the dude was, both in general and in his warbling Led Zeppelin appreciation style. I got a contact high watching them, good stuff.

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Batpiss were on next, bringing a much heavier bent to the night. Their name has always made me wish they were a joke grindcore band, but I’ll settle for the grimy rock’n’roll collective they chose to be (boys, if you’re reading this, let’s start a Batpiss franchise. I’ve got a sweet drum machine we can use for the blasts). They put in a frantic, and in places doomy, performance to a mostly appreciative crowd, but you could tell who everyone was there for.

While watching Baroness I had a sudden realisation; the world doesn’t really have any Rock bands any more. Any of the electric-guitar driven bands are either watered down abortions lacking, for want of a better word, “balls” (usually squashed by a super tight pair of denim jeans), or they’re a metal band like Slipknot or Metallica. With their massive sound, highly-strung energy and genuine excitement to be playing in front of a receptive crowd, I nominate Baroness to be the next big stadium band. For as good as their tracks sounded in the Prince Bandroom, they should be playing giant fuck off arenas, letting the sound carry across suburbs.

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Hitting the stage amidst numerous plumes of epilepsy medicine, and looking like they were about to explode with joy, Baroness opened their set with hit after hit; the first three songs saw Shock Me and March To The Sea whip the crowd into a head bobbing frenzy. Their set was a good mix of the new and old, and was fairly well paced, with their encore leaving on the biggest, most energetic cuts they could muster.

These guys are on top of their game, an effortless mix of experience and enthusiasm, with some of the best harmonising I’ve heard in a long time. It was great to finally see how a show can be considered both “fun” and “joyous” without a circle pit or wall of death. I get it now. Sometimes really good music played by consummate showmen is all you need. This was my first time seeing Baroness properly, but it won’t be the last time.

About

Mitch is a 26 year old vegan, socialist, atheist, utilitarian, reductionist metalhead, stand up comedian and philosophy major that hates labels. When he isn't being politely ignored at dinner parties he's being politely ignored on comedy nights around the country.