HiFi
Bar
With the heat sweltering outside, the cavernously
empty interior of the HiFi Bar is soon brought down a few degrees by an icy
blast of bracing post punk from local trio Terrible
Truths. Bereft even of chords, the band’s stripped down sound is filled out
with a twin vocal attack, busy drumming and brash attitudes. With the aesthetic
of the Raincoats and the accurate simplicity and drive of Love of Diagrams, the
band play as if they’re being chased, a fear of silence or slowing down drives
every song. It’s a fantastic show and bodes well for future releases.
An equally excellent choice for support and also
sounding as though they’re beamed in from 1981, NO ZU are the most kinetic band in town. Each member of the sextet
plays accurate and simple motifs that spiral in and out of time in a
captivating way, though songs are interchangeable they prove there are still variations
on funk in 4/4 left unplayed. Songs often sound like uncontrolled
breakdowns, in danger of getting lost but with a whip crack of timbale
everything is brought together. This is what tightness looks like.
The buzz about ESG’s live-to-air at RRR
yesterday has helped crank the atmosphere in the now-packed room from buoyant
to excitably hyperactive. To the sound of Tom Tom Club’s Wordy Rappinghood the band walk out waving happily. ‘How you doin'
Melbourne?’ grins singer Renee Scroggins over the near deafening cheers of the
crowd, ‘this is a song called Dance’.
With powerhouse drummer Valerie and percussionist Marie, the Scroggins’ are one
of the most heard and least celebrated bands in history. The music itself is some
of the simplest dance music ever released - drums, bass, percussion and minimalist
vocals - yet it’s so effective it becomes instructive, and also explains why
they were (and are) sampled so widely; they got it right.
Their classic and much-sampled UFO follows and includes the only use of
guitar. Percussion drives the songs; dual tambourines, vibraslap and copious
use of congas and cowbells are the only sounds to flesh out the massive bass
and powerhouse drumming. Every introduction is met with deafening cheers, Time Shift, The Beat, I Feel Tonight and
the almighty anthem to leaving bad relationships Closure, all cause such a burst of positivity amongst the crowd
that this gig quickly becomes the happiest of all 300 plus gigs this reviewer
has been to since writing for this publication. It’s phenomenal just how strong
the effect of this music and the sight of these women playing it are. Further
testaments to danceable simplicity follow My
Love For You, You're No Good and Moody are dispatched with joyous
precision. An encore of You Make No Sense
elicits a brief stage invasion by dancers and the smiles on the faces of the
band as they’re brought out for a second encore seal this as being one of the
finest gigs in eons. All this and they didn’t even play their best song.
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