Sincerely, Grizzly andSteering by Stars @ The JadeMonkey, Adelaide (20/02/10)

Sun 28th Feb, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Once again we found ourselves in the familiar surroundings of the Jade Monkey. A sizeable crowd had turned up to see two of Adelaide’s finest and most interesting bands. Steering By Stars are one of the most intriguing and atmospheric bands we’ve ever seen in Adelaide, and they certainly enthralled the audience with their Sigur Ros meets Deerhunter vibe, with a touch of mid-90s shoegaze thrown into the mix. After checking their facewebs, it turns out that the two previously mentioned bands are listed in their ‘artists we like’ section, which makes sense. Unlike a lot of bands around, the vocals appear to be used to create textures rather than as a lead instrument, vocalist/keyboardist Lachlan Wilson plugging the microphone into what appeared to be a very large collection of guitar pedals. Very few bands use this with good effect, but it gave them an almost My Bloody Valentine kind of feel, which we liked very much. The blend of Lachlan’s reverb and delay-drenched vocals with Rory O’Connor’s clean harmonies added so much, and we watched the band as if in a daze. Their recent attention is well deserved, and the crowd certainly enjoyed it.

Sincerely, Grizzly is one of the hardest bands to pigeonhole, because they change style, tempo and dynamics several times in every song. Their EP, which the band was launching, has an album’s worth of material contained in the four songs on the disc. Which, for four dollars, was an absolute bargain. There are traces of The National, but besides that, they have us dumbfounded. Jayney wanted to coin a new phrase for them: Math-Pop. The have the intricacies of Helmet, the grittiness of The Melvins, the controlled insanity of Brand New, and yet they sound like none of these bands. They truly are a unique band, and we think that’s the greatest compliment we can give them. The performance was confident, and the time in studio honing their sound has helped them immensely. For a band so disjointed, everything seemed to flow perfectly. Drummer Rowan Mount swapped between an electric kit and an acoustic kit, and although his electric kit gives him a wide variety of sounds to play with, there is nothing like having the force of a real kick drum hit you in the chest (and the eardrums). This is unfortunately going to be an issue for any drummer who plays an electric kit, and isn’t as much of an issue if you’re in the back of the room. They played for about an hour, and stuck to originals apart from a cover of The National’s Mr. November, which sounded absolutely ferocious. The highlights were, of course, the tracks from their EP, especially I Might Not Be Robinson Crusoe, But You’re No Good Friday. They ended with what is quite possibly their finest moment: Two-face. Josh Calligeros usually sings by his lonesome (maybe bassist Griff Farley is too pretty to sing), but we were lucky enough to get backing vocals (from the mixing desk, no less!) from Adelaide indie-rock royalty: Matt Hills and The Keepsakes’ Anthony Wignall (or Wiggsley, as we like to call him). It was so good that if they don’t get Matt to mix them every time, they’re going to have to throw a microphone in front of either Rowan or Griff, and make them do it. The harmonies from the CD have become integral to the bands sound, and we certainly hope they become a regular part of their live show. The crowd was as enthusiastic as we were, and the hired goon trying to force everyone to buy a CD after their set really didn’t have to – most people had already bought one!