A packed, sweaty, local venue? Crowd-surfing from start to finish? Stage diving from band members and supports acts a-like? A crowd throwing beer and water over itself less than half way through the first song? It must have been an Eddy Current gig. On a cold, wet Thursday night in Melbourne, the four gents from Eddy Current Suppression Ring, led by their highly unpredictable front man Brendan Suppression, tore the Prince Bandroom apart.
Whilst ECSR delivered everything that was expected, they still managed to throw in plenty of what the hell is going on moments. This also extended to the choice of support acts.
First up was Warragul’s The UV Race. Quite frankly, the less said about them the better. Playing short, frenetic punk noise, their set was a mess of unnecessarily odd mid-song tempo changes and pointless backing vocals that were further dragged down by the most unengaging and apathetic lead singer I have ever seen. Looking and sounding like a drunk karaoke performer, he mumbled and stumbled his way across the stage. Fortunately, after twenty minutes the set was over and it was time to move on to the next act, Melbourne four-piece, The Exotics.
If you were to take a poll of all the people in the now packed Prince Band Room, as to who Eddy Current Suppression Ring would invite to open for them, I am sure a sharply dressed, middle-aged four piece playing a mixture of surf rock and swamp blues with a heavy dose of gospel thrown in for good measure would not have been at the top of the list. Well that’s what we got.
The band were the complete antithesis of the UV Race, delivering a tight, energetic and highly entertaining set. Their lead singer slinked around the stage like a possessed preacher, constantly reaching up to the sky as if trying to draw on energy from a higher power. The drummer, who I kid you not, looks like Goldie Hawn in her prime, combined perfectly with the group’s bass player and produced a tight groove that sounded like a runaway freight train. Whilst they may not have been the obvious choice and they definitely were not everybody’s cup of tea, the band’s professionalism and infectious energy, meant that the risk ECSR took by inviting them definitely paid off.
With the opening acts out of the way, it was time for the band that a now packed room at the Prince of Wales had waited all night for to take the stage.
Eddy Current Suppression Ring are a great example of a band that has stripped down to its bare essentials and have absolutely nailed it. The band played a raw and uncomplicated set of rock that is straight out of the 1970s, whipping the crowd up into frenzy as soon as they take a stage.
Much has been written about lead singer Brendan Suprression, and for good reason. Stalking around the stage like the bastard child of a baby Tyrannosaurus Rex and Iggy Pop with tourettes, Brendan feeds off the energy of the crowd, continuously interacting with them throughout. He pumps his fist at them, throws them bottles of water, crowd surfs and basically cannot stop moving. At one point, deciding these antics are not enough, he casually saunters off the front of the stage, walks through the crowd with microphone in tow, climbs up and over the island bar at the back of the room, cracks himself a beer and skulls it before proceeding back onto stage, never missing a word.
While Brendan’s antics can be described as spontaneous at best, the rest of the band are as tight as drum. Eddy Current’s clean, uncomplicated guitar lines compliment perfectly with Rob Solid’s thick as custard, rubber band like bass lines and Danny Curent’s propulsive drumming. At many times throughout the show, the three members join each other at the centre of stage, locking onto a groove and building it up to critical mass before exploding across the stage, whilst the crowd simultaneously goes ballistic.
The set is an unrelenting one, never giving the crowd a chance to catch their breath. Drawing from their self-titled debut and AMP winning Primary Colours, songs included Get Up Morning, Cool Ice Cream and Which Way To Go before closing the main set with I Admit My Faults. Thanks to constant chanting they return for what appears to be an impromptu, single-song encore performance of Pitch A Tent, leaving the now sweat soaked, exhausted crowd all wishing they had tickets for their sold out performance for the following night.
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