On tour with Mammal

Fri 10th Apr, 2009 in Features

Ascendant metal-groove four-piece Mammal have spent little time resting in the wake of a hectic festival season; after recording a new live album -just six months after their studio debut The Majority, they set off on a WA tour – one that saw them double their total gig count in the west. In tackling this final frontier (rarely visited in deference to constant east-coast touring) Mammal picked up a brace of converts along the way; the new mammalians. Fasterlouder grabbed a backstage pass and tagged along on the WA tour to join in the fun.

Gig 1: Friday 27/3/09. Players Bar, Mandurah – 2 hours south of Perth.

9.50pm: Mammal are camped in the Players’ Bar greenroom, handily located at the top of a perilously narrow steel staircase. With about 30 minutes until changeover, vocalist Zeke Ox gets busy with a purple whiteboard marker, writing up lyrics to the brand new track Tempo and the Groove. Tonight’s Mandurah crowd will be the first to hear it played live, when the band will also unveil a range of new facial hair-dos. “It’s all about beards at the moment,” says Zeke. “That’s the main focus of the band.” Mammal’s lanky guitarist and manager Pete Williamson concurs. “Zeke and Zane are growing beards,” he adds, contrasting their growth with both his and Nick Adams’ more established fuzz. “Zane’s quite new to it and he’s going around noticing more men.”
“Men with beards,” clarifies Zane, shortly before knocking over a beer which spills down the front of his shorts.

10:12pm: Nick is warming up; not with his bass, but jumping on the spot with gusto to prep for his stage moves. “You don’t get glutes as good as Adams’ without doing the type of pre-gig warmup that he does,” says Pete in praise of Nick’s arse.
“I do,” counters Zeke, trying on a combo of op-shop clothes. “My glutes are epic.”
Leaning back in his chair, Zeke stretches his legs out onto the table and begins pulling on a pair of what look like striped red and black tights. “Ah, here we go!” chides Pete. Zeke strikes back. “The lack of vision in this band stuns me,” he mocks. “You think I’m just gonna walk out there with the classic standard 1990s Eddie Vedder rig? No – you gotta have a bit of pixie on you.”
Zeke dubs them – œsockings’, dons his black sneakers and leaves the room.
“He’s poor at the moment,” explains Pete. “He used to spend a lot more money on clothes, but now that the band is investing all its money in making records and flying places, there’s not much left to spend on fashion.”
So now that Mammal is getting bigger, they’re poorer?
Pete laughs, bemused. “Yeah. It’s weird.”

10:17pm: Zane pipes up: “I’ve just figured out how to text a phone number to someone else – you know how people go – œcan I have this dude’s number?’”.
“Send a business card,” says Zeke blankly.
“Yeah, business card!” says Zane. “I only just figured that out man,” he confesses, giggling as he realises what he’s walked into. Pete hammers the point home: “Zane’s the drummer in the band, just for the record.”

10.20pm: Walking to the stage, Pete describes Mammals’ WA touring setup as – œgoing commando’ where entourage is concerned. Their merch-dude and chief stage aide have both remained at home, allowing the band to save valuable dollars. The only regular with them on this trip is their sound tech Jarrad Hearman (an aptonym if ever there was one). “We’re rolling with very minimal crew on this leg, missing two of our key members, but we’ve picked up crew over here,” Pete says, likely referring to local lighting tech Danny K (of Perth metal band Sparring For Shotgun). As it turns out, Mammal don’t need much help to create an epic sound.

10.35pm: Sound guy Jarrad’s choice of blasting Chaka Khan tunes and Michael Jackson’s – œBeat It’ is turning heads and helping a few people strut their stuff early. On stage, gaffa is torn by teeth and set lists are being taped down by Nick and Zane. Pete chats amiably to a photographer. Zeke is nowhere to be seen; presumably hidden close by, focusing himself.

10.45pm: Mammal signal their readiness, opening things up with a blast of guitar and cymbals. “Thank you all for coming down, Mandurah,” Zeke begins. “We only get one Friday night this week, so let’s make this one count. Can I count on you to make it count?” he asks. Every movement and act of speech coming from Zeke seems motivated by (and crafted naturally towards) connecting with crowds. The crowd shout a positive response. Pete fires up the wah-lick intro to The Aural Underground.

10.47pm: Zeke wastes no time in getting the crowd to lead the singing; “So who’s got the CD?” he asks as Zane and Nick keep a groove pumping. About half the punters cheer, eager to show their loyalty. “Well then let us hear you sing!” And they happily oblige.

10.57pm: Zeke is in the crowd for the third time in four songs, working them, singing straight into their eyes and herding stragglers closer to the stage like a predator feeding on mass reaction. This close-up taste of the band is something that their WA followers couldn’t experience at Mammal’s Big Day Out set, and they’re grabbing the interaction opportunity with both hands; mostly concentrating on Zeke’s nuts. “Just a quick note,” announces Zeke good-naturedly at song’s end. “My balls are my balls; they’re mine to grab when I want, or when I ask someone specifically to do so.” (As it turns out, Zeke’s groin is in for much more of the same at the next two gigs.)

11.15pm: Jesse, the Players Bar door dude, confirms a turnout of around 140. “Numbers have been down since October, really,” he says, pointing out that live music is suffering as much as any other business from the economic downturn. “British India were here early last year and they pulled 250; then came back late in the year and got less than tonight.” At the peak of the boom, he tells us, he saw Karnivool pull 500 punters. Asked if that number is over the venue’s legal capacity, Jesse simply smiles and shrugs his shoulders.

11.24pm: Mammal slip a few bars of Guns n Roses “Welcome to the Jungle” into Inciting. Nice move.

11.31pm: “This has been an unreserved pleasure for Mammal this evening,” Zeke tells the sweaty punters. “We flew in today, and you guys have just lifted us above and beyond, guaranteed,” he says. “Those of you who haven’t seen us before may not know our traditions and our customs and our rituals; but you’re about to learn one of them.” A voice in the crowd screams “Fuckin’ hell yeah!”, bringing a grin to Zeke’s face. “This guy knows what’s going on,” he says. “This is our last song. Let me hear you say Hell Yeah!”

11.35pm: Set done. “We’ll have a drink with you at the bar now,” Zeke concludes. “Let’s rock and roll.” Jarrad brings up the house sound: – œSir Duke’ by Stevie Wonder…

*Stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3 of this tour diary: featuring more mammalian nut-grabbing, exploring the band’s connection to Shane Warne: The Musical via WA, Mammal’s domination of Perth and more revelations.*

Check out the candid tour pics at the gallery HERE.

EXCLUSIVE TO FASTERLOUDER: Enjoy this teaser clip of Mammal’s unreleased new song Tempo and the Groove, filmed live at soundcheck in WA.
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MAMMAL – teaser clip ‘Tempo and the Groove’ from Jeifer Walker on Vimeo.]