Because I need to put my mind on something other than the likelihood that a Jerry Seinfeld lookalike might die if they met me today, I am going to write a brief, inelegant, not-press-ready version of my thoughts concerning last nights show. THE BAD I have to say this, and I think it bears thinking about. Whomever was at the mixing desk really let the side down. It is one thing if you want the peak volume of a concert to be loud enough to hurt. I get that. But whilst I do have auditory processing thingies (mostly manifested by bass frequencies coming through a lot clearer than others), I was not the only one who felt compelled to stuff tissue paper in my earholes to prevent hearing damage. I think a big part of the problem was that somehow the mixing desk guy thought that since the peak volume should be high, so too should be the lowest volume in the sound. Essentially, you had maybe two decibels between the quiet, noodly sound and the big power-chord. This compromised the ability of all five bands to do subtle, varied things and have them make a difference. But this is just me, and I could be wrong. THE IN-BETWEEN Let me say this right off the bat. Nobody who played at the Bald-Faced Stag on November 8, 2014 played a bad show. Some of the audience banter reflected the fact that Sydney audiences tend to be a lot more subdued, but that also ended up being a highlight. Gaped, Hell Itself, and Mephistopheles all played a powering, speedy death metal that whilst not exactly brilliant to my ears, certainly kept me entertained. If I could sum up the problem I did have with the bands, other than the sound desk thing, it is that variation between them was a bit minimal. Throughout, I was thinking of a Roadrunner Records compilation I had on frequent spin when I was about twelve years old. From Allegiance to Alchemist to Toxeamia to what have you, the compilation goes from straightforward thrash to Dali-invoking weirdness to a doom that would make Sabbath look tame. The reason that compilation is one I long to have again in spite of all these years can be summed up in one word: variance. The important point being that between Gaped, Hell Itself, and Mephistopheles, almost none of that variance occurs. That in itself is not a bad thing, but it did not help from where I sat. Everyone else showed not one sign of giving a shit. Mephistopheles in my opinion came off the best of these three acts. Not coincidentally, they also had the most noticeable change-ups in pace, timbre, and all of that. Please allow me to repeat and stress. Nobody played a bad show. I just did not walk away as blown away by these three bands as I would have liked. THE GOOD Cruciform came on. Really, in order to understand this, you have to go and see them. But I will take a moment here to talk about sequencing. When putting together any piece of long-form entertaining, whether it be a film, a novel, an album, or a stage performance, it is always a good idea to start and finish with the strongest materials you have. That way, people stay interested to hear what is coming next, and they leave with the most positive impression. Any one of Cruciforms songs qualifies under that. There is no Cruciform song that one would expect them to open or finish with because every single one, especially when played live, is magical. When they play, an imaginative listener like myself can go on a journey with the music into a mind or place ones best and worst ideas are true. Every Cruciform song is a crowd-pleaser, but on this occasion they opened with the one that is second in line to pleasing me the most, Gutter. Gutter is the song you play to people when they are giving you the Waltzing Matilda Bullshit Speech and you want them to hear in the strongest terms possible that their Australia and yours can only meet under conditions of war. And in spite of what the mixing desk did to the dynamic range of the songs, the three-guitar AND keyboard attack made the climax of this song even more powerful than it should be. Sort of the difference between 10,000 tons of TNT and 10,100 or so, if you get my meaning. (I want to take a moment here to ask about or mention the lady Cruciform had on keyboards whilst Simon stuck to his guitar and vocal position. She deserves both credit and work elsewhere when available.) I could go on for tens of thousands of words about Cruciform. If you already know about them, my words are redundant, and if you have yet to experience the joy of their music, it would be more expedient to find you an example somewhere. So I will just cut to what constituted the chase for me here. A new song (I did not hear the name of it properly) was played. This song was a little different in terms of composition to the other Cruciform songs that I know, reflecting the many years between, but at the same time it was bloody awesome. So much so that, as I have said elsewhere, if asked to pay twenty dollars to have this one song in FLAC, I would get out my wallet. I cannot put it any better than that except to say this song made me want to scream at them to hurry up and get the damned CD out already (haha), and made the not-insignificant effort involved in getting to the Bald Faced Stag worth it. When you can say a song of perhaps seven minutes makes your hours-long journeys in both directions worth it, that speaks to the supremacy in quality terms of the band. (And again, worth mentioning here, the difference in drumming pace between Cruciform and the other four acts makes them stand out all the more.) Getting away from Cruciform now, headliners Sinister, who were the only band of the evening to not originate in Australia (if I read right, they are Dutch), also put on a great show. Their tight death metal is indeed world-class. Their music in stylistic terms, whilst only marginally different from the other three straight-death acts, is different enough and played just better enough that it became clear after ten minutes why they were headlining (other than the foreign origin of course). Overall, a good night, and an enjoyable night. The only thing I could say I did not enjoy, panic-anxiety before the show got started notwithstanding, would be the audio mixing, and it speaks to the quality of all five bands that they acquitted themselves from well to awesomely in spite of that. Not a five out of five night overall, but not for lack of ability on the musicians part. I cannot wait to hear them again.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 03:25:08 +0000
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