Mammal, Snap To Zero, QuietChild @ Jive, Adelaide(20/09/07)

Tue 25th Sep, 2007 in Gig Reviews

When Mammal opened for Cog late last year, they achieved the unexpected distinction of giving the top-class headliners a run for their money… from the bottom of the bill. So there was a justifiable mood of anticipation when they arrived at Adelaide’s Jive in support of their recent live release, Vol 1: The Aural Underground. This time, however, their rabble-rousing, sermonising and high-octane rock and roll would appear at the other end of the bill, where it was right at home.

The evening rumbled to life with the steady prog sludge-metal of local act Quiet Child. Though not as lively as the later acts, Quiet Child did their thing pretty well and seemed to gain a bit of momentum toward the end of their set.

Snap To Zero took the middle slot with a decent dose of attitude and an impressive range of varied musical styles. Stand outs included new song What Are You Looking For?, the lively All On You, and the fantastic eastern-tinged It’s About Time.

Apart from having to borrow a snare drum after damaging their own, the only blight on Snap To Zero’s solid set was the news that it would be their penultimate gig.

As good as Snap To Zero made their farewell, the night belonged to the lads from Mammal. Front man Ezekiel (Zeke) Ox even managed to make watching the opening band seem like a revolutionary act, standing in front of the stage with his arms folded and looking like a scrawnier, spikier version of Wolverine.

By the time Mammal arrived onstage Zeke had removed his shirt and had his body carefully painted up with an elaborate design that gave his already manic facial expressions a heightened sense of dangerous urgency. In Zeke, Mammal have been blessed with one of the most intense and electrifying front men shaking their fists at the industry today.

Flipping off the crowd at the end of Think, Zeke dedicated the following track to all of the record labels in Australia, taunting them with the observation, “you want what you can’t have”, before launching into the spirited Every Single Fucking Time. This set the tone for most of the show, where Mammal somehow balanced rapturous celebration with a sense of imminent revolution.

Bassist Nick Adams provided a solid groove as he bounced across the stage. Guitarist Pete Williamson and drummer Zane Rosanoski were spot on and the whole band surged, roared and pulsed with the single-minded intensity of a stampeding herd.

Even the failure of a microphone couldn’t take the edge off of Mammal’s one-hundredth gig, as Zeke spoke to the audience without amplification, imploring them to protest their right to protest.

As Mammal’s set climaxed with the irrepressible Hell Yeah and the call to arms of Maker, it was clear that this is a band that matters. Like Black Flag mattered. Like Rage Against the Machine matters. Check them out as soon as you can, because you just might get to see history in the making.

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