Heavy Trash @ Deville's Pad,Perth (07/12/09)

Wed 9th Dec, 2009 in Gig Reviews

Cal Peck and the Tramps read from the same book as Heavy Trash. Isn’t Hard to See bridged the divide between garage and blues with spectacular effect, Dave’s harmonica giving the song some true grit and downtrodden soul. Murder Ballad No. 1 ’s story telling was amazing, the band creating the perfect backdrop for some vocal hostility. Cinnamon was a rollicking excursion through the blues and the joys of the fairer sex.

It would be fair to say that many of the punters at Deville’s Pad were there to see Jon Spencer (AKA the Microphone Destroyer), as opposed to Heavy Trash. With a down and dirty body of work spanning over two decades, having led Pussy Galore, Boss Hog, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and now Heavy Trash, there were at least four very good reasons just to show up.

Heavy Trash, while not being an entirely different beast from his previous bands, finds Spencer occupying his least mentalist persona: more Elvis Presley than Howlin’ Wolf and more Link Wray than R.L. Burnside. Spencer appears to have shed the fuck-everything approach that saw him trash the studio of our very own ABC in 1997. True to form though, he managed this change with aplomb, the only compromise being the change from electric to acoustic guitar. As it turned out, this was no compromise, Matt Verta-Ray made damn sure of that

Pure Gold, as the name suggests, mined the depths of rockabilly, Spencer’s bark and howl drenched in popping slap-back echo. Any reservations that Spencer-ites may have had were well and truly checked into the cloakroom leaving only manic energy on display; Spencer molesting the mic to the tune of white hot rock n’ roll, Verta-Ray’s chops front and centre. Spencer exclaimed “Yes its Heavy Trash and we are very happy to be here ladies and gentlemen”, the crowd repaying the sentiment with a rapturous holler, most totally fixated on Mr Microphone Destroyer.

Isolation’s smooth groove highlighted the band’s dynamic range, taking an excursion through dirty blues; soulful backing vocals complementing the Spencer croon. Verta-Ray’s less is more stabs magnifyied the solitude. She Baby was a bona fide rockabilly stomper, the boogie causing the go-go girls, and the crowd, to go as wild as jungle cats, burning up Deville’s, Verta-Ray’s chops again setting the joint alight.

Good Man found Verta-Ray on lead vocals, laid-back and chilled with a certain malevolent charm, predatory instincts masked by a good-looking hum, razor-sharp leads and phenomenal backing vocals courtesy of our Jon. Kissy Baby mined more rockabilly strut, the old-gold backing vocal harmonies were only topped by one of the coolest rhythm sections known to man. It might as well have been 1955, such was the commitment to the aural aesthetic, but it never for a moment seemed pastiche.

They Were Kings was a fitting closer. The rockabilly boogie coupled with the blues explosion thrash of old set the dance-floor alight, Spencer paying homage to the influences that made the band the way they are, and in doing so Heavy Trash ensured their place in history as purveyors of happinin’est, hip shaking, soul-mining old rock n’ roll the new millennium has seen. Those who arrived wondering who the hell Heavy Trash were, left under a spell of some of the best rock n’ roll you’ll ever see, and even if Jon Spencer made some dodgy student films or voted republican, after this he was well and truly forgiven.