Live Reviews : Neurosis & Dispossessed @ The Croxton, Melbourne, 18/02/2017

I always love it when someone uses their position for something just slightly outside of the remits of what you’d normally expect. Bronwyn Bishop and her helicopters, for instance. Tonight I got to see the singer of Dispossessed hush the entire Croxton Band room, and shut down some loud morons, while he passionately and vehemently laid out the inarguable facts of his lived experience as an Indigenous Australian. He didn’t have to; the only social contract he had with the crowd was to play some music. But fuck me if it wasn’t an amazing sensation to feel every arsehole in the gig pucker closed at the uncomfortable truths he was spouting with venom and conviction. There is something awe inspiring when someone tells people to shut the fuck up, to listen to their story, and if you don’t like you can fuck off out of the venue, when they’re the support band. I feel like seeing Dispossessed now is like watching an angrier, more Australian, more grind and doom Rage Against The Machine start their career; the music is good, and about to be great, but what drives it is the undeniable fury and conviction they live with. It isn’t even about how they play; they make sure their very presence is a political “fuck you.” It’s about time we had a band this vital kicking around.

Neurosis, on the other, stand at the opposite end of the spectrum; like implacable titans, self-assured and uninterested in the lives of mortals, they don’t interact with the crowd, they don’t wait to see what we think, and they don’t give a fuck about our eardrums. There were numerous moments I genuinely forgot I had plugs in and had to re-check. These guys are loud, and the cheeky cunts somehow found a way to turn the volume up for their last song too.

Seeing Neurosis is a visceral experience, closer to Sunn0))) than, say, Monolord or Ufomammut. They have managed to distill the essence of “heavy”, whatever you think it may be, into an experience you more feel than see or hear. The opening track teased the “drop” (for lack of a better term) for just long enough, and so effectively, that when they actually hit the full throttle riffing I burst out laughing. What these men do with music is literally ridiculous, it just shouldn’t sound this heavy and massive.

One small issue that I had with tonight’s set, and I wish I didn’t, was the almost complete lack of a light show. And I say almost, because there was someone definitely working the lights, but the entire production filtered between “blue backdrop and clear front lights”, to “blue backdrop lights with nothing else, looking kinda eerie I guess.” That there was a token amount of light work done just highlighted how much wasn’t being done, and by the end of their set it starting to wear me down. Maybe it was deliberate, but I honestly would have preferred static, unchanging lights instead of the “B L U E” that was on through their entire set. The show might have been perfect if somewhere along the line bothered with it, which is a shame, because something something music, something something speaks for itself.

Overall, tonight was a very good night for music. Not revelatory, but not far off.

Related Posts

• 

  Markus Saastamoinen – Puzzle Pieces
• 

  HJELVIK – Welcome to Hel
• 

  AC/DC – Power Up
• 

  Depravity – Grand Malevolence