It seems that this is very much the touring season here in Australia. Comparing notes with my friends the other day, we’ve each found there is a long list of bands we all want to see coming to town. Last weekend post-metal band Russian Circles and melodic sadness masters Katatonia came through town – and surprisingly to myself, I was not only keen to go to two gigs on two consecutive nights (I am in my thirties), it was also an incredible time.
Russian Circles
Like many great Melbourne nights, this one began at the Clyde. I’m now apparently on the hook to co-organise an experimental film night (we’ll see – would be good though). My pal, W, and I ended up skipping the opening acts for the conversation, and arrived at the venue maybe 10 min before RC took the stage.
The first thing to note about their set is that though there are just three of them on stage, it sounds like there are many more. Both the guitarist (Mike Sullivan) and bass player (Brian Cook) make extensive and excellent use of loops on stage. They seem to have some backing tracks, but mostly for a few atmospheric transitions between songs. The sound was huge at the venue.
The second thing is that while obviously, in a power trio, everyone has to be pulling their weight, the drummer, Dave Turncrantz, clearly leads this band. He provides such an incredible amount of energy on stage. I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t dry heave from exhaustion afterwards.
The band’s music is all instrumental, but interestingly, they also didn’t have a stage mic at all to talk to the crowd – they just arrived, played their songs (mostly from their latest album Gnossis), and left. No encore. Amazing.
Katatonia
Compared to the night before, a huge contrast. Firstly, W, I and our friends M and S, rocked up early enough to see all of the opening acts.
The first band was called Victoria K, and honestly, it wasn’t great. It’s a bit shocking that they got a high profile opening gig like this – the night before they also opened for Blind Guardian. None of the members of this band seem to be very prominent in the scene (not that I’m that connected to know what’s what, but my friends are). There were some whispers of them being industry plants – might not be surprising.
The second band, Suldusk, was a huge improvement – they play a kind of folk-affected metal that while not exactly my jam, was at times pretty good. They have a new album coming out, and I might listen to them again.
Katatonia were a radical departure from all of the other bands. Head and shoulders above their openers, their songs and sound were simply better. For me, it was a bit of a nostalgia gig – I used to listen to them a huge deal when I was 18 or 19, and not that much since. They played a lovely selection across their back catalogue, and perhaps most of their new album.
Overall, I don’t super know how I had the energy for all this, but it was a solid two nights of metal music. I would love to see a band like Russian Circles or Katatonia take more of an improvisatory approach. I know it’s not really the done thing in metal music, but why not? Why not?
Philosophy After Dark 