Melt Banana @ The Forum,Melbourne (10/10/09)

Tue 13th Oct, 2009 in Gig Reviews

After years of the Famous Spiegel tent as the hub of the Melbourne Festival the queues to mingle in the tiny bar with the black clad artistes have finally been dispatched. Seriously how many burlesque shows and cabaret collections of Cave, Weill and Waits can a city be expected to endure? So it’s with no small relief that the festival has relocated its bar of after hour delights – The Rumpus Room – to the larger though no less beautiful Forum theatre.

The move has also seem an expansion of the musical delights on offer – with everything from flamboyant electroclash, to Palestinian hip-hop, Iraqi metal and the opening night offering from acclaimed Japanese noise-rock act Melt Banana. It’s a bill of acts that will attract both the idly curious and devoted fans – and at a mere $15 for each gig it all but guarantees a decent crowd for acts that wouldn’t usually have the opportunity to play a venue like the Forum.

For their first Australian show – and only date on this jaunt to our shores – the experimental rock, grindcore, no wave, psychedelia, hardcore punk and post-punk crew made quite the impression. With their miner’s lights carving streaks through the darkness the band took to the stage to open with an invigorating wail of theremin as their drummer launched into a set of drumming that firmly backed up the group’s hardcore credentials.

Yasuko Onuki’s agitated spiky vocals gelled with the frenetic guitar work of Ichirou Agata’s and with the introduction of Rika Hamamoto’s bass the intensity of noise seemed could have sountracked your helpless run from the hooves of the four horsemen. Though the light show and projections were little more than screensavers the unrelenting force of the music easily compensated for lack of visuals.

To the confusion of the suited security, the pit of committed fans erupted in to a seething mess of bodies. A brief pause to thank the crowd and apologise for taking so long to make it to Australia was interrupted by the need to return a stray shoe to the crowd – though it soon flew back towards the stage. A quick encore including their brilliantly demented cover of Toots and the Maytals Monkey Man and it was over and the punters filed out with many of the curious converted and the devoted delighted.

At a time when a supposed alternative youth radio station offers a play list somewhere between middling mainstream and golden greats anything that can draw a packed house to investigate the madness of Melt Banana has to be applauded. For any music fan seeking something more than another airing of the tired and tested the Rumpus Room looks the place to be this festival – otherwise you’d best be off to eBay to bid on that scalped BDO ticket.

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