Moh Van Wah, The Third Cycle,Degrees of Freedom @Greenroom, Canberra,(12/09/08)

Sun 14th Sep, 2008 in Gig Reviews

Degrees of Freedom kicked off the nights proceedings utilising the show as a warm-up gig for Sundays support slot with Birds of Tokyo at the ANU Bar, but from the sound of things, they are more than ready to take on a much larger audience. Degrees of Freedom got through their set with a surgical precision performing songs from both their EPs as well as a debut outing of their Neil Young cover Don’t Let It Bring You Down.

Next up was Sydney quartet The Third Cycle. Their on-stage energy was infectious, combined with the quality of thier music, the steadily increasing Greenroom crowd was in for a treat. Their style is best described as a simple and highly effective brand of pop-ish rock, Jess Donnellan’s Gwen Stefani-esqe sounding vocals a light contrast to the rest of the bands darker music. They started off with a high energy and too their credit, at no stage did The Third Cycle back off the pace. Then, before I knew it The Third Cycle had closed out the set with a brilliant performance of the title track from their Pressing Sound EP.

Rounding out the night were Canberra stalwarts, Moh Van Wah. Their set was a loud raucous blur of hair and black, kicking out their own special brand of 70’s influenced rock that has made them a staple on the Canberran music scene. At first, I was somewhat taken back by their haphazardly loud sound, but after a few songs, Iit was clear they were making noise work in their favour. Guitarist and bassists, Marcus and Ryan adopted a head down, mind on the job, no nonsense stance for the night as they accompanied Ash and his wide and varied assortment of percussive implements, as well as vocallist Ben, who did his best to interact with a slightly dwindling crowd.

By the time Moh Van Wah got around to closing the night off with Weapons of Choice a song not featured on their upcoming album of the same name (yeah – I got confused too!) everyone had well and truly had their dose of rock for the evening and they were loving it!