It’s a typically hot and humid Brisbane summer night on Friday 19 December.
After spending most of my year overseas, it’s weirdly reassuring to be back in the balmy bowels of The Zoo; a place that amidst the increasingly ‘renewed’ Valley remains as reliably ragged and welcoming as ever.
Tonight’s Ty Segall show kicks off with support from Thigh Master, a local four-piece who deliver straight-up, tight rhythms (in the vein of Parquet Courts), covered in dissonant guitars and ragged vocals.
Thigh Master - Image © Christian DuellMoments later an imaginary brown Kingswood pulls into The Zoo laneway and out jump the three sun-bleached, ‘summer of love’ brothers The Babe Rainbow.
The first thing I notice is that lead singer Angus Dowling plays the drums STANDING UP! Wait…why doesn’t everyone play the drums standing up? Not only is it possible to drum AND dance at the same time, but Angus also manages to spin around on the spot between drum fills!
With a medley of upbeat pop tunes that evoke hallucinations at a bowling alley to the ‘Grease Mega-Mix’, The Babe Rainbow share an entertaining set of dreamy dance tunes reminiscent of Django Django.
The Babe Rainbow - Image © Christian DuellI came across Ty Segall’s music admittedly late in the piece through 2013’s ‘Sleeper’ and this year’s double-album ‘Manipulator’, and for some reason I head to tonight’s show with the impression that we’re in for a mellow, psychedelic gig. My expectations are, well… brutally assaulted from the moment the band takes to the stage. I should have known.
There are all the right ingredients for this to be an explosive gig. A full house and the perfect amount of heat, booze, testosterone and impatience. As Ty Segall and his band kick off with ‘Finger’ (from 2010’s ‘Melted), the crowd responds by going completely ape shit!
The band steamroll through tracks from 2012 releases ‘Twins’ and ‘Slaughterhouse’ before launching into an amped-up version of the title track from ‘Manipulator’. The crowd writhes in unison, with the occasional fan climbing onstage to dive into a waiting sea of arms. It seems rare to witness this kind of raw and spontaneous audience energy and it’s hard to imagine this happening better anywhere else in Brisbane than The Zoo on a summer night.
However, The Zoo stage staff and security quickly tire of the spontaneous stage-jumping antics of the crowd and when a sound guy decides to drag a punter off-stage into the waiting arms of a security guard, things get awkward. Ty is unimpressed, has stern words with the security guard and returns to the microphone with an announcement of approval for the crowd: “You guys can jump up here and do whatever you want. We’ll decide when you can go.”
Tonight the stage belongs to the band and their audience and Ty is in charge. The raw and energetic love between the band and audience defines tonight’s show. At one point, sensing the extreme heat of the mosh pit, Ty drags a stage fan down to the front row, waving relief to some sweaty, bouncing faces before amusing himself with a fan robot voice (remember doing this as a kid?) through the microphone.
Ty Segall - Image © Christian DuellDespite all of the adolescent angst gyrating on the floor, onstage it’s Ty and his band that deliver the most energy in the room tonight. The set is dominated by tracks from latest release ‘Manipulator’ with ‘The Faker’ being a real standout. Ty’s guitar playing is wildly frenetic but highly accomplished, in a kind of rock god, teenage-bedroom fantasy way. His melodic vocals fight and victoriously soar above the shrill of the band, erupting in screeches and screams at just the right times.
But this is no solo show, and Ty’s band (bassist Mikal Cronin, guitarist Charlie Moothart and drummer Emily Epstein) share the same energy, intensity and hair-thrashing. It’s clear from the exchange of grins that these four people have experienced the joy of making this melodic, monstrous noise together many times before.
The set finishes victoriously with ‘Wave Goodbye’ (from 2012’s ‘Slaughterhouse’), but clearly no one in the room is ready to leave and the band is quickly drawn back on stage for an encore. With the number of extra onstage visitors tonight it appears that all of the set lists have gone missing and so Ty and the band break into a jam on ‘Makin’ Time’ by The Creation as they contemplate the encore.
The end comes in the form of a surprising and raucous rendition of Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’, thrashed out until there is no more noise, aggression and emotion left to extract.
Moments later, the lights are on, the crowd has dispersed and we’re drifting down the stairs from The Zoo toward the cool summer air waiting on the street. A perfect relief and contrast to the exhilarating and beautifully exhausting experience of tonight’s Ty Segall show.
