The Dead Electric @ Manly Fisho's 15/04/2011

The Deathly Prelude

Friday Night, 5:55pm: I've been studying for most of the day and I've actually managed to talk myself into trying to hibernate for the rest of the weekend. Nothing is going to stop me from getting my assignments done, not even my friends.

Slight problem #1: I'm actually pretty tired and I think I miss humanity. Sitting in one spot is getting boring and the prospect of hibernation is dismally anti-social. Facebook is not enough. I wonder what is happening outside and how everybody is. What if I miss out on something interesting. I think I need more coffee to perk me up.

Friday Night, 6:00pm: My mind has been wandering for the last five minutes. I just need to wake up and focus, though I know the coffee in the cupboard isn't strong enough. I mustn’t log onto Facebook. I mustn't check my email. I mustn't check my phone. I will continue studying – because I have to!

Slight Problem #2: I can see my phone ringing. It's on silent but it's flashing. I'm trying to resist. Resist. Resist. Resist. But – humanity is on the other side of the line. I don't think I can resist that. I want to pick it up. I need to pick it up. I do pick it up. My friend Nick tells me that he can't study anymore. I tell him that I'm determined to continue studying myself – because I have to – though I do kind of want to go to a gig at The Fisho's because I know a band and it's closing down and I need to write a performance review...

Friday Night, 8:30pm: At the Fisho's with my notepad. I will study tomorrow (...I have to).

The Dead Electric

I felt like I was in a dingy class-room and we were all getting ready to play 'Murder in the Dark'. Unmatched tables and chairs were scattered all around. The white walls were grubby. The blue-grey carpet was worn and stained. But, a make-shift-looking stage stood against the far wall and a bar (of the alcoholic sort) was getting busy in the corner, right of stage. I reminded myself that this was actually a pub filled with adults, not little kids preparing for a party game.

The Dead Electric haven't got that much info up online. Triple-J Unearthed told me they were Punk-Rock but that's a pretty general classification. They're said to sound like Queens of the Stone Age, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Everytime I Die, but the only thing I knew for sure was that they're a five piece: Paddy Boylan on vocals, Alex Eldridge and Lachy West on electric-guitars, Floom Mulray on bass and Michael O'Sullivan on drums. Plausible band, but I really had no idea how they were going to sound.

They were supporting 28 Days (who do rap-metal stuff). It was the second-last band night at Manly Fisho's ever. I was feeling like I could really do with a Red-Bull to wake me up but the music took off before I had time to carry that thought into action.

Seconds in and I was definitely awake. The energy coming off the stage was crazy-intense. They were so alive. Typical rock sounds came from the guys on instruments while primal screams consistently launched from Paddy's throat. His howls made me want to call them “Screamo” more than anything else, but I'll classify them as Hard-Rock. I have no idea what he was yelling about but people were literally going ballistic. Head-banging, hair-thrashing, crowd-surfing, drink-spilling and by-stander trampling ensued in the crowd and on-stage. These guys ran amok and did a great job of communicating and interacting with the audience. The stage and floor pretty much morphed into one by the end - it was like communal insanity. It was totally awesome (and ear-blasting).

Their set consisted of 7 songs, but I only worked that out because the chaos died down distinctly five times throughout. I wish I could tell you exactly what each one was about but I couldn't really distinguish between them because I couldn't understand the words – the Fisho's is renowned for its dead acoustics. I can only say that the vocalisations involved lots of dirty words and angsty revelations regarding, what I figure to be, some pretty personal shizz that nobody really needed to understand in order to comprehend the more important feelings involved. They did a great job of translating emotion, instead of focusing upon any generic story-lines, though Paddy did introduce a few of the stories. One was about “every f-ed up relationship you've ever had that was probably your fault”, while another was about “the most f-ed up bitch you've ever met”. I figure they were aiming to resonate with the blokes in the crowd...

Many in the crowd were probably only warming up for 28 Days but The Dead Electric really hit them with a thrill. They came prepared to “rock y(our) f-ing socks off” and do that they did! (I can't say I was wearing socks myself but my feet were subject to a bit of bystander trampling!). They're only starting out but the ingredients for future success are all there: style awareness, audience involvement, passion, confidence, ability and a heap of energy - enough to not only get a crowd started, but to keep them going too.

So, how could they could improve? Well, they could certainly do with playing at a place with better acoustics. Apart from that, they could do with a little more focus on interacting with each other while they perform. Although they did a great job of interacting with the audience, there were often five rather distinct performances happening on stage. It would be good to see a bit more communication between the vocal and instrumental parts especially - some more combining of the ideas deriving from the sounds of the different instruments (vocals inclusive).They could do with some longer guitar and drum solos and a bit more consistency and repetition of ideas to build a bit more flow, though not so much that they lose their sense of chaos, which is probably their biggest selling-point.

The Dead Electric were raw, rugged, crazy, loud and so much more alive than dead. My ears continued to ring for about 12 hours after they left the stage and they certainly woke me up – much more effective than any form of caffeine!

Cutwing @ The Lansdowne, 01/04/2011

You really shouldn't bet on what you think you know before hearing and/or sighting good evidence. And, you shouldn't ever bet on perfect timing - especially not on April Fools Night. Accordingly, Cutwing's final show of their 2011 Inicia tour jogged my genre expectations and started exactly 55 minutes later than I (or any in-house timekeeper) had anticipated - without any band members on stage. What a clever way to fool the crowd into the zone...

Jittering metallic tones were all that sounded from the unmanned stage. Jittering metallic tones growing more intense and intrepid by the second - initiating the scene of front-line warfare. Front-line warfare in numbers, making a proper scene for the crowd, the red shade of the velvet curtains and the warm breeze (from the open doors) that danced upon our backs in the darkness. Everyone preparing for a dramatic battle involving lots of DEATH and METAL!

Oops. Fooled myself. Cutwing shouldn't be described as “Death” Metal, as such. In fact, they can't be described as “Death” Metal, at all. They're absolutely full of life and their sound is much more accurately described as melodic hard rock, infused with progressive metal and electronica (though there are echoes of battle themes, e.g. in the song 'Stalemate'). A snippet of their stuff on 'You Tube' also countered my metal genre stereotype, but I had still arrived with some pretty fallible expectations, e.g. this really should involve violently raging machine-heads who wear black leather, have seedily long hair, possibly breathe fire and definitely bellow unmentionable remarks pertaining to the glory of Satan and animal cruelty. Yeah. If not overtly so, then maybe subliminally in the lyrics?! Nope, totally nope...

So, I've clearly demonstrated that I'm not really enough (if at all!) of a well-seasoned metal-head (or chemist) to be able to confidently distinguish between the variety of “metals” that make up “Metal” as a genre... Really, I'm just a mildly inquisitive young adult with a slightly devilish imagination and a strong propensity to subject myself to unfamiliar situations and interesting soundscapes, especially if friends and atmosphere are involved!

But, cut to the wing – I have to tell you that the boys did come on stage! Things got loud after Simon Skipper (the longish-haired bassist with his back to the audience) picked a single string on his guitar. He turned to face the audience after that, but Rocky Dean-Shoji (on electric guitar) was already showing off his own crazy eyes. Julian Cartwright (the lead vocalist) started out sounding more like a bird than a ghoul, but David Schadow (on drums) was already instigating a strong beat fit to head-bang to throughout the show. I scribbled down “thinking this is cool” in my notebook about a minute into the 9 track set. The scribbles that followed it would only reinforce that first thought - and yes, I did get some suspicious looks and inquiries regarding my pen, my notebook and my cause.

Cutwing, a band of Triple-J Unearthed punters, formed in 2009 and have put in a lot of hard work to get to where they are today – finishing their first tour. In two years, they've earned a reputation for delivering impressive and engaging live shows, sharing stages with other upcoming acts like The Art, Bellusira, Breaking Orbit, These Four Walls and The Paris Crash. They're clearly influenced by Linkin Park, with a sweet voice (Julian even screams with melody) as the centre-point against an intense backdrop of metallic sound. The use of distorted guitar – coming off murky, almost water-logged – specifically reminds me of more familiar bands like Soundgarden, Audioslave and Nirvana. Cutwing are said to sound something like Karnivool, The Butterfly Effect and The Lost Prophets, but really, I think they's got a pretty original sound of their own.

Cutwing put on a strong, steady and sincere show. It was both professional and uplifting. These guys are serious and gracious performers, not fakes or try-hards like the band that preceded them – they just wanted to “fuck up the world” and send us all “around the corner to the ear clinic”...

I was most impressed by Cutwing's cooperative stage presence – it was a real team effort. A true but unusual sense of shared strength and determination beamed from the group as a whole, unlike an arrogance or shallow enthusiasm that might come off an individual who manages to steal a show without good reason. They developed momentum really well as a team too: Rocky and Simon (the guitarists) took turns with Schadow (on drums) to build intensity, while Julian sang at a pretty consistent volume throughout.

Cutwing's effective teamwork obviously contributed to a well-crafted and rehearsed performance as well. I doubt they made a mistake and the instrumental parts were layered so neatly and methodically that you could separate them quite easily in your mind, while you listened, without losing the plot of their combination as a whole. They also did a good job of developing a bit of a 'characteristic' tendency to cut to an 'instrumental' section (or 'break it down' bit, according to my urban vocabulary) that I felt was on the way to becoming 'classic' by the end of the set.

The boys also did a good job of engaging the crowd. Each demonstrated that they had their unique character, e.g. Rocky's mad eyes, Simon's “hair-spins” and Julian's interacting with the audience off-stage. They just deserved a bigger venue with more space and a larger audience for a better chance of getting bigger responses!

So, what could Cutwing improve on for their next tour? I'd say song-craft. Most of the tracks lacked 'hooks'. I couldn't really find anything to chant along to and I didn't leave with any particular lyric or riff in my head. I would have liked to keep something in my mind to discuss later, but the 9 songs they played all just morphed into a wave of their general soundscape. The lyrical themes were also a little hard to relate to because, although the concept of 'Stalemate' was clever, I couldn't really find any other narratives or phrases that I could relate to seriously enough to remember. They could also do with a reinvented cover or two, to get ears flapping since the band is fairly new.

Cutwing certainly jogged my expectations relating to Metal as a genre. They're masculine but not angry, energetic but not frightening. And, their stuff is positive, not soiled by heavy content or any sort of agenda. That's going to allow them to appeal to a pretty wide market, certainly including myself! So, after seeing and hearing good evidence – I bet they're going to fly! 

P.s. A glimmer of hope on the 'hook' front: the chorus of “Into the Light” did fly through my mind later in the evening. It also woke me up the next morning. There's hope for hooks! :)

P.p.s. exaggerated those Metal genre expectations ever so slighty! :p