The Mess Hall, Regular John @ Annandale Hotel, Sydney (13/07/2012)
The Annandale has always had a solid reputation for providing a place for young bands to cut their teeth. They’ve also provided a stage for acts that have been around the block, to come back to and play to their loyal fans. Tonight was a night for Sydney to come together and celebrate some of the talent that has sprouted here in this city.
Regular John pack a punch. They’re loud and proud, brash and they seem to get a kick out of being a bit in your face. Despite only having one full length album under their belt they’ve been performing together for a while and are building a firm fan-base not just in Sydney but nationally with a crashing live set.
Songs like ‘Sky Burial’ ‘The Trail’ and ‘Fractals’ all embody the hedonistic tendencies of their psychedelic forebears. With frenetic wailing guitar riffs; or terse drum beats; or rumbling bass. The unfortunate thing about being the support act though is you can be plagued by that horrendous disease known as ‘feedback’ if you’re burdened with a perhaps less than experienced sound engineer and sadly the kids from Regular John were victim to this, which distinctly put me off a good portion of their set. Had it not been for their determination to push on like little musical soldiers and continue to throw themselves into their music I probably would’ve tuned out.
One of the key reasons why this show was a sell-out was it would be the only show in 2012 for Sydney laureates The Mess Hall. Don’t be fooled though, Jed Kurzel has been a very busy man with many a nomination for several awards courtesy of some well crafted musical scores courtesy of his involvement with Aussie indie flick ‘Snowtown’ and short-lived cable series ‘Spirited’.
With no overshadowing need to promote new material Kurzel and fellow bandmate and drummer Cec Condon just got down to business. The gig was non-stop raucous, deafening, blues-rock all gushing out of the pores of this duo. For only two of them onstage they make an awful lot of noise but it’s so wonderfully structured to not sound like a mess. Condon’s drumming not only provides the structure but also the depth to the songs since there’s no bass; this melding is evident in ‘Pulse’ and ‘My Villain’.
While ‘Shake Shake’ and ‘Pills’ got the crowd quivering their proverbial tailfeather, both these songs are wonderful fun and Kurzel’s guitar screeches drives the foreground. Crowd favourite ‘Keep Walking’ got the men, who were the majority of the first three rows in the room fist-pumping and head-banging.
‘Lock and Load’ also made an appearance in the encore, with Kurzel noting that they never rehearse this song prior to playing it so he was hoping they manage to perform it successfully, and that they did.
Despite not having a new album out, Kurzel and Condon still managed to draw enough punters into the ‘dale for a sweaty thick performance. Here’s hoping that the gents from The Mess Hall deliver us some tasty new musical morsels soon, because we really need more of their live prowess on stages again.
Carina Nilma
Regular John pack a punch. They’re loud and proud, brash and they seem to get a kick out of being a bit in your face. Despite only having one full length album under their belt they’ve been performing together for a while and are building a firm fan-base not just in Sydney but nationally with a crashing live set.
Songs like ‘Sky Burial’ ‘The Trail’ and ‘Fractals’ all embody the hedonistic tendencies of their psychedelic forebears. With frenetic wailing guitar riffs; or terse drum beats; or rumbling bass. The unfortunate thing about being the support act though is you can be plagued by that horrendous disease known as ‘feedback’ if you’re burdened with a perhaps less than experienced sound engineer and sadly the kids from Regular John were victim to this, which distinctly put me off a good portion of their set. Had it not been for their determination to push on like little musical soldiers and continue to throw themselves into their music I probably would’ve tuned out.
One of the key reasons why this show was a sell-out was it would be the only show in 2012 for Sydney laureates The Mess Hall. Don’t be fooled though, Jed Kurzel has been a very busy man with many a nomination for several awards courtesy of some well crafted musical scores courtesy of his involvement with Aussie indie flick ‘Snowtown’ and short-lived cable series ‘Spirited’.
With no overshadowing need to promote new material Kurzel and fellow bandmate and drummer Cec Condon just got down to business. The gig was non-stop raucous, deafening, blues-rock all gushing out of the pores of this duo. For only two of them onstage they make an awful lot of noise but it’s so wonderfully structured to not sound like a mess. Condon’s drumming not only provides the structure but also the depth to the songs since there’s no bass; this melding is evident in ‘Pulse’ and ‘My Villain’.
While ‘Shake Shake’ and ‘Pills’ got the crowd quivering their proverbial tailfeather, both these songs are wonderful fun and Kurzel’s guitar screeches drives the foreground. Crowd favourite ‘Keep Walking’ got the men, who were the majority of the first three rows in the room fist-pumping and head-banging.
‘Lock and Load’ also made an appearance in the encore, with Kurzel noting that they never rehearse this song prior to playing it so he was hoping they manage to perform it successfully, and that they did.
Despite not having a new album out, Kurzel and Condon still managed to draw enough punters into the ‘dale for a sweaty thick performance. Here’s hoping that the gents from The Mess Hall deliver us some tasty new musical morsels soon, because we really need more of their live prowess on stages again.
Carina Nilma