The night at The Tote seemed to be small band-wise. The two-piece Hotel Wrecking City Traders set off with rolling drums and overdriven guitar. Although the first couple of songs had headbanging potential, it slowly got a bit repetitive. The strumming of the guitar was pretty much constant throughout their entire set, and the sound just wore my ears out after awhile. It faded into the background as the drums took on a more prominent part in the band. The rhythms the drummer Ben Wrecker came up with were passionate and full of dynamics. It was hard to peel my eyes away from him as his movements became more of a blur.
The next band was another two-piece. Radiant City is however, quite different from Hotel Wrecking City Traders. With the same instruments as the previous band, the drums were toned down a little so as to give the guitar more room to shine. Andrew McLaughlin obviously knew his guitar well, tweaking it so as to get the best effects. His beautiful wrist-flicking action was one to watch as well. The incessant strumming of reverberating chords was spotted with traces of soft melodies. Brad Marshall on the other hand, kept a steady rhythm while Andrew did his thing. Towards the end, the two did a drum solo together that sent the crowd cheering for more.
It was a while before indie band Shooting At Unarmed Men took the stage after their soundcheck. But when they did, everyone stared. Three men in their boxers and singlets were suited up in a semi-transparent white raincoats, almost like the protection suits you wear into infected areas. They wandered onto the stage taking their positions, and launched into a massive albeit short opening, before exchanging instruments. When this band say they do not try to conform, they sure as hell mean it. It was odd seeing three entirely white (or well eggshell white) men playing their hearts out, but it was odder listening to the music they were making. Ranging from the voice of an emotional victim to the evil ringmaster to hoarse screaming, Jon Chapple never failed to entertain. Looking like an ewok off Star Wars, Chris Drane kept up intensity of the songs with his fervent drumming, in one song even hitting the cymbals with his head. Bassist Patrick Walker was probably the most subdued of the three. He did get a chance to shine though, when Jon told the audience that Patrick had come up with an introduction to one of their songs.
Sarcasm was rampant through their set, from the audience and from the band, specifically Jon. There were discussions about what was the biggest poisonous snake in the world, how much sperm a sperm whale had in its semen, and other ridiculous nonsense. As you can already tell, Jon is quite the animal whiz. He started going on a spiel about how education is important, causing members of the audience to call him names. Who wants to hear about education when there’s alcohol?
Before they played the song No One Can Waltz, Jon asked for two people to come up on stage to waltz. And as the song title says, they couldn’t waltz. They did try though, and when the song was over, Jon called to them to get off stage because they were shit. Just before the last song, In-Flight Instructions Are A Joke, Say I, Patrick had some trouble with his bass. One of the strings would not stay in tune, but all was fine because the string would not be utilised in the song. This was a sing-along song and sure enough, the crowd crooned out the line “She drank the whole bottle down”. As the song, and hence the night, drew to an end, Jon hung his guitar down Chris’s back while he was still drum-soloing away, and then went on to hang Patrick’s bass down Chris’s back as well before chucking empty glasses at the poor drummer who later stumbled around and ended up knocking over a couple of drums.
It must be hard being instruments sometimes. The abuse one has to endure. Especially in such a quirky band like Shooting At Unarmed Men.
