Cum on feel the noize!

It was a good night to be a noise rock fan in Magandjin/Brisbane last night, having Gadigal/Sydney crew Totally Unicorn closing out their Hard Feelings tour at Soapbox Beer, with a full stable of locals in support.

It was my first time seeing Valve (It was my first time seeing 3/5 bands tonight!) and they were quick to make a solid impression.

Treading the line between post-hardcore and noise-rock, they blend the more turn on a dime shifts with spiritual hardcore elements with great aplomb. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for their shows, and their recent EP released on Team Glasses Records is worth a squirt.

Valve's Bandcamp

Leaker are one of my favourite local groups, their churning noisecore and delightful aussie presence are always a good time. This was the biggest room I've seen them play and they fit it like Homer in clown pants!

They were sounding particularly tight and vicious, which made sense when the vocalist mentioned they've just finished recording their album. Definitely keen for the album and more Leaker shows on the horizon.

Leaker's Bandcamp

Deafcult are a band I hadn't seen before pretty much exclusively due to my own laziness, but discovered they're a local institution for a reason

They make great use of their triple-guitar team; deftly tag-teaming and leaving space around each others playing. When juxtaposed against the thousand crashing waves of their untethered full force, their mastery of dynamics becomes fully apparent. I generally lean more Fugazi than shoegazey, but Deafcult do the genre a great service.

Deafcult's Bandcamp

Apparitions' vocalist made quick work of collapsing the fuck you horseshoe when they came to the stage, and got everyone more cozy. As an elder emo, Apparitions feel like a warm blanket to me, sitting somewhere between Blueline Medic and old Braid. They definitely started to pick up the tempo of the night, and it was good to hear them testing out some new songs too. The self professed 'outlier' band for the night, Apparitions definitely got the crowd moving the most of the openers. Noise rock is good for doing the toad stomp, but not much else.

Unfortunately, they drew the short straw for tech difficulties for the night, but thankfully the stage team were on it and nothing too disruptive to their set.

TOTALLY UNICORN

I hadn't heard Totally Unicorn before the gig. I'd thought about listening to a few tracks as the gig got closer, but I honestly think some bands are better experienced live for the first time, and Totally Unicorn fit right into that for me. I had a big shit-eating grin smeared across my face after half a song and it didn't really leave for the rest of their set.

Spewing out upbeat, danceable noise rock with heavy post-punk leanings, I'd probably describe them as the love child of BATS and Les Savy Fav. A dangerously sexy combination that had the whole crowd moving and singing along. They even helped a few people get a quick work out in – when the vocalist moved through the crowd to the back of the pit and convinced a few punters to have a crack seeing how many skips they could get of his mic lead. (I had vivid flashbacks to watching LSF at The Zoo as their vocalist brought an 8ft ladder into the crowd and climbed and flailed all over it as the crowd held it steady; these moments must stick in the throat of whomever is paying the public liability insurance, but fuck do they stick in your mind too!)

A pet peeve of mine in hXc and metal shows is front men who are more front than man; chiding the crowd and trying to bully them into engaging more (heads up - it never works and you look like a dickhead!)
So Totally Unicorn's front man being the antithesis to that really stuck out for me as well. Every mic break was spent thanking old friends, thanking promoters, staff and other bands, and cracking jokes. He was even humble enough to admit his obviously misguided takes on some of the State of Origin refereeing this year!

Already keen for the next time I get to see these lads rip a crowd a new one. 7/7 mic lead skips from me!