Walking into the Birmingham Hotel was like walking into a work in progress. The Birmingham Hotel is currently revamping its old school interior in an attempt to spishup the pub for the punters. The hotel walls are lined with paintings of music legends. There is a faint smell of ciggie smoke that resinates from the old carpet and reminds me of the good old days.

Shaman Son have the exact persona of the Birmingham Hotel. Their music, though influenced strongly by old school rock, is refurbished with the clever but subtle use of synth and a reverb pedal, allowing the band to create a sound all of their own. When I walked into this gig I was introduced to a huddle of rock boys, and one girl… who to be far could have just as easily been an effeminate indie boy. From the stage came the sound of the lead sing quietly warming up his vocal chords while filling up glasses of water for himself and his band mates. The young fresh faced band, proceeded to pick up their instruments and blow my freaking ear drums out, creating a strange oxymoron between their look and their music. Their sound was powerful and could amazingly fill a stadium, yet seemed to sit comfortably in the small Birmingham Hotel band room.

The four piece band, made up of Jordan (drums), Robert (vocals), Whill (guitar synth and vox), and TeD (vox and organ), have been playing in various bands since 2005 and have built up a scattered following in Melbourne. The guitarists played with such intensity that their faces were rarely seen from underneath their Cousin Itt-like hair, the drummer kept up with the band with the gusto of Animal from the Muppets and their lead singer even donned the tambourine which was impressively kept in time using his head. The band played songs off their EP such as Meltdown and Heavy Hearts; and rocked out to newer songs like Harder to Breathe and Flower Bloom.

There were moments, however, that the performance seemed chaotic, disorganised and a little Nirvana like. At those times you were left concentrating more on which famous band they sounded like and less on listening to their music. These moments passed quickly and the quality of the performance resumed. Shaman Son have a strong musical sound and an amazing stage presences. Taken from the nods of appreciation spreading through the small but engaged crowd and the race to get to the free EPs I would safely say that this would be a gig quoted when the masses begin to storm the band wagon with group adoration. ‘I saw Shaman Son play the Birmingham Hotel before they got famous…’

I guess the band can be best described by a quote from their Myspace, ‘An acid test for a new generation of kids who want to turn on, tune in and rock out’. Shaman Son will be playing every Tuesday in April at the Birmingham Hotel, so get on the 86 tram jump off Johnson and Smith and check these guys out.