Melbourne’s Fritzwicky have released songs in dribs and drabs over the last few years and their latest EP was launched last Friday night at The Bendigo Hotel in the city’s inner North, with support from The Keiths, Bear the Mammoth and Cat or Pillar. Like so many small gigs the line between garage party and pub gig was pretty well blurred and in some ways the show never found its identity, but despite tending toward a get-together of friends, the music was good, the bands gave it all they had, and the Skull Lager was cheap.
The line-up itself was a bit odd but I thought it worked well, breaking up the genres to explore four distinctive and different progressive sounds. After all, even the most devoted fan can find four similar acts a bit much. The Keiths play progressive hip hop with loads of funk and the combination of singer and rapper over some free flowing and interesting rock from guitar drums and bass does more than simply take from the Chilli Peppers. Playing with bags of energy they belted out a nine-song set punctuated with a fair bit of talk with a couple of friends in the crowd including members of the main act.
Bear the Mammoth
Bear the Mammoth hit the stage next with four longer tracks covering their debut EP, their split with Xenograft and Kettlespider, and their newly released first album. More business-like in their approach than the openers they got on with their dynamic crescendocore with little interaction as they left the more proggy tracks at home for the night in favour of some traditional post rock tremolo playing the ying to the thunderous explosions of yang. The new tunes 'What’s Yours Was Mine Is Never Leaving', with its two distinct parts, and 'Cloverlea' worked well alongside 'Rain' and 'Sea Caesar'. I’d like to see them turn some attention to tidying up transition between songs, but their sound keeps marching forward each time I see them.
Cat or Pillar
This was my first chance to see Cat or Pillar live, and they were as good as I’d hoped. Vocals returned to the night’s menu care of Luke Dickinson’s strong clear pipes, opening their set of fast-moving progressive rock with a couple of my favourites from their debut full length; 'Helios' and the longer 'Entwined' with its crescendo building to screaming vocals before dropping back down. There’s hints of Muse and Radiohead sprinkled throughout their performance and after a couple more from the album they close not with a long epic track, but the sprightly 'Cigarette' from their EP - a good choice.
Fritzwicky
No one could accuse Fritzwicky of taking themselves too seriously, despite the complexity and diversity of their progressive rock. In fact it’s pretty hard to find their music online and the new EP is only available “from all good Fritzwicky members”, and if you get it forget trying to work out what any of the songs are called. Describing the feel of the songs is tricky, other than to say they like to crank out tunes that make you want to dance but are often almost impossible to dance to. Still the small crowd has a fair crack and there’s plenty of vocal support from the floor for the guys during and between songs.
Fritzwicky
They play a longish set with ten songs in a bit over an hour and at one stage a combination of the mood, the music and perhaps some other contribution sees things get a bit weird as a friend of the band in the crowd takes singer Steve de Niese’s guitar from him when not in use, and soon starts strumming along, obviously wanting to feel more connected. The fact he’s playing in a different key and a different song is noticed, but the band elect to keep going till it’s finished before recovering the instrument. It didn’t fuck up the song but I’d hate to see this become a thing.
The last two songs each seem to go forever (perhaps they did play longer than I thought), and the closer sees Steve jump down from the stage and add a verse or two lying on his back before he leaps to his feet for the last refrains. It’s a good set and their energy and musicianship shines. Fritzwicky could be more popular if they took some aspects of being a band more seriously, but then that would just as likely upset the heavily skewed balance of art and promotion that sees them come up with the music they do and rob from the fun they’re having. And when it’s this good it’s the music that counts.
