Cut and Paste 6 Launch Party

Mon 19th Jan, 2009 in Gig Reviews

Were you there? Find yourself in Stuo’s Gallery

Cut and Paste is a locally produced quarterly DVD full of music, clips interviews and short films that is given away free to showcase local art, culture and music. They are up to issue 6 and it’s launch party on Saturday night included local djs entertaining a silent disco, as well as the noisy majority between bands, showings of short films, street art, and of course the actual DVD playing silently on the big screen.

The Bakery crowd is always a nice one, a bit like Amps used to be a long time ago. Even the security guard who has to tell you for the seventh time that smokers have to be in the pen to smoke still smiles and is polite when he does it. The pen, incidentally, was crowded and half full of non-smokers who wanted to talk to their smoking mates between bands, and so there was plenty of space in the rest of the courtyard for the silent disco. Even the disco lost a couple of members to the pen where they were blissfully grooving to whatever tunes were going on in their headset, and looking like a dragon at the same time. If the smoking pen is a health thing, surely they should make if bigger so that smokers have the space to blow their smoke away from their fellows instead of in their faces. Rant over.

And so to Injured Ninja who drew a curious crowd in from the courtyard; as well as several hardcore fans (some might call them stalkers, but let’s be kind) Their set was a mixed bag, some eminently danceable tunes, and some more challenging ones. Bassist Dom Pierce’s intensity was captivating and a little frightening. Being the band member at the other end of his manic stare must have been disconcerting, never knowing if he was going to chuck the bass and start belting the drums, or take the music in a different direction altogether… Or perhaps it just looked like that. The Bakery stage had the drum kit up on a riser, allowing plenty of room for Steven Hughes (guitar/vox) to spring about the stage with a physical intensity to match Pierce. Intensity is rather a good word to describe the Ninjas’ performance in general, their stage presence, their sound, the strain of electric toys, keys and samples pushed to the very limits of music by Jake Steel, the unpredictability of their songs… even those with which we are familiar, might today have a second floor tom being flogged by a musician suddenly transformed into a psychotic witchdoctor. None of this is a bad thing, what is surprising is that it works so well for them. Of course, now that they have had the word intensity levelled at them, their next gig will be a laid back stoner-psych set, just to keep us from pigeonholing them. Catch them on the DVD, or when they return from their tour of Japan, -especially if you’re tired of indie.

Another dj break in between bands, we were entertained and kept bouncing by Missile and while some took the opportunity to wander around and have a look at the multimedia art also being showcased, others took advantage of the cheap beer.

Eleventh He Reaches London disappeared for the most part earlier in 2008, but they are back for the new year and have a new album due for release shortly. The triple axe wielding line-up made for a decent amount of noise, ably matched by their frontman’s impassioned delivery, much less of a scream than it appears in most tracks on The Good Fight for Harmony Perhaps the screamo tag has made them reconsider their delivery somewhat, or perhaps it is a vocal cord preservation choice, since these boys look like they have a few good years left in them yet, and it wouldn’t do to destroy the pipes before they have finished with them. Whatever, if Friday night’s performance was anything to go by, the new album is going to be worth a listen, and 2009 might be a busy year for them.

Also appearing on the DVD but not in the launch line up, are Pivot, Will Stoker and the Embers, Streetlight and Downsyde, (Although Rooster Police did play earlier in the night) as well as a stunningly moving short film by Maziar Lahooti. It is available on the streets of Perth now for free, and well worth a look.

Were you there? Find yourself in Stuo’s Gallery