With the décor of Renaissance painting outlines and the Grand Organ that took centre stage for the evening, the Melbourne Town Hall played host to Italian progressive rock band Goblin for a sold out gig.
The Night Terrors kicked off the evening, enchanting the audience with music resembling the combination of Star Wars-esque sound effects and synth dreamscapes. The band engaged with the use of a Theremin, an electronic musical instrument that requires no physical contact, only requiring precise finger movements by the user to interrupt the electrical signals, thus creating high strung notes reminiscent of a classical opera singer with a six octave vocal range.
Thematica, a seven-man band featuring members of Midnight Juggernauts, Cut Copy, Architecture In Helsinki, Pikelet and Lost Animal, were on next. With images of old films like the Kubrick classic A Clockwork Orange projected on the Grand Organ pipes, the band churned out some sombre, more serious tunes. This was followed by the transition to more upbeat, comedic tunes, with the main vibes of the latter coming from the saxophone. The band then concluded their set with a brilliant rendition of the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The lights dimmed completely, with heavy breathing soundtracks coming on, and out came Goblin to a frenzied audience. The band started with an introductory guitar riff that sounded fitting in a car chase scene, again with Star Wars-esque gun shooting effects in the background. The experience was the equivalent to being in a rock concert, minus the vocals and mosh pits and with the addition of the grand organ, which heightened the drama of the music. “It’s the first time that we played with an organ like that!” claimed Claudio Simonetti, one of the two Goblin keyboardists, and the praise was deservingly so, considering that this Grand Organ is the biggest one in the southern hemisphere.
The fourth song started with theatrical guitar riffs that resembled that of Dream Theater. The anguish and passion was evident in the eyes of guitarist Massimo Morante, as he invested his emotions into his guitar solos with much fervour. It was clear that people of all ages enjoyed that evening, with indie kids clapping to the beat and middle-aged women fist-pumping in excitement, providing an irony of sorts in enthusiasm.
The sound of heartbeats and children humming lullabies preceded Goblin’s most famous soundtrack, belonging to the 1977 Italian horror film Suspiria. Red flashes of light engulfed the stage as Goblin gave their last song of the night. The crowd clamoured to shake hands with the band after their performance, a clear indicator of a supurb evening.
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