In front of a home crowd, Regurgitator’s debut at the very beautiful Tivoli rocked. The headlining act was the definite winner of the evening – but I will get back to that.
It has to be said…A fellow punters’ appreciation to the merch guy Mark “Sparky” Grounds. Mr. Grounds has sold thousands of t-shirts and other paraphernalia over the years. He has proved his professionalism through his dedication and loyalty to the music industry over and over again and for that he deserves a big fat “thank you”.
Hailing from New Zealand, the Shocking Pinks set was full of quality distortion, but also clarity. The timing was perfect and their layered sounds were displayed through the expression and concentration on their faces. Simply, they sounded like a mixture of the Cure and Joy Division. Multi-instrumentalist Nick Harte’s hard work and dedication were evident through their amazing sounds.
A diverse range of songs were played – Dressed to Please, Emily, You Can Make Me Feel Bad plus a Led Zeppelin sounding medley. Keyboardist Emma Rosenberg appeared to be content at what she was doing and at one with the music. While the mean drummer Tim MacDonald took pics of the crowd, former D4 bass guitarist Vaughn played the beautiful deep bass in amongst a wall of bubbles supplied by one member of the audience. There were two major things evident – one, the guitar would not stay in tune and two, it seems they lacked performance experience – maybe that is due to Harte as the only stable force within the band.
Ratatat describe their music as rock, electronica and hip hop, but they were definitely more than that. They were interestingly unique. Interesting because of the multi-tiered resonance made by the high quality performers and their instruments. And unique in their tight, well rehearsed projection. Impressively simplistic and exceptionally easy to dance to, the praise has to go to synthesiser driver and producer Evan Mast.
Guitarist Mike Stroud posed for the Faster Louder photographer and Jacob Morris did not dilly dally as he continually ran from one red keyboard to the other. It is easy to see why they pulled such a large crowd who couldn’t stop moving to the beat of their drums.
And then, Regurgitator enters the stage garbed in jeans and dark t shirts. Entirely every song they played was a good one. A continual stream of songs bated the hearts of the over excited crowd. They played and played and played and played, and they were awesome. A large arrangement of songs from over the years included Couldn’t Do It, I Sucked A Lot of Cock To Get Where I Am, Kong Foo Sing, Polyester Girl and Hullabaloo.
They also played a lot of songs from Mish Mash: Ben Ely told the crowd to look out for the girls before My Friend Robot, Seja Vogel demonstrated her beautiful and well rehearsed vocal capabilities in Romanced of the Damned and completed the electronica label with her fast moving fingers on keys. Quan Yeomans was ultra fast on guitar and vocals and Peter Kostic kept the band’s unreal songs together splendidly.
Regurgitator were superbly unified in a noticeable and genuine way – through the never ending cheesy grins on the faces of Ben and Quan, through their adoration of each other and their love of their own music. Ben and Quan fed off each other and they were assuredly having the time of their life, playing up for their jubilant home town crowd of Brisbane. Strong and powerful, Ben and Quan were the definite shining stars with their clear skin and beefy arms.
Usually, Regurgitator put on a good show, but nothing beats their first time at the Tivoli (well, maybe their set at the Save the ABC Rally in 1996). They still play the Brisbane audience perfectly. I Like it Like That.
