Brian Jonestown Massacre are old school when it comes to looking cool onstage and having that loose ‘what the fuck do we do next?’ look on their faces, and they do have the catalogue of songs to back up all the hype, volatility, and mythology that is packaged with being one of the premier psychedelic shoegaze units of the past few decades. Then why was I feeling bored and disinterested? Only showing shades of intrigue here and there?

There is a wall up between the band and audience for long periods of the set, as Anton Newcombe stands and delivers on the corner tip of the HiFi stage. Central to our vision is not the trademark frontman but instead the spiritual leader of the Massacre, the undeniably disaffected Joel Gion who embraces the cigarettes, booze and tambourine to full effect! It’s a given that the band’ll light up to calm nerves and play up to the image, but tonight the punters are also flouting the smoking ban. Massacre disciples lit up both the normal and the good stuff to pay their respects, surrounding the mixing table in a cloud of smoke.

After feeling like I’d just fallen out the back of The Mystery Machine, I’m confronted by a run of ripping wig-out tunes and then the appearance of the Lovetones’ Matthew Tow who jumps on stage for some action with the band. Cigarette in hand he embraces a reserved Newcombe who has spent the majority of the set stage left, head down, swilling vodka and wandering off backstage, before he clicks into Starcleaner.

Considering the two hour set was being recorded live to tape tonight, you’d have thought that Newcombe and band would have given us something ‘incident based’ to chew on. But nothing comes through, and that’s the appeal of the band. Unpredictable. Erratic. Serious. Dangerous. The Brian Jonestown Massacre leave no stone( r ) unturned!

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