Machine Head @ Metro City(22/3/10)

Thu 25th Mar, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Machine Head stormed into town to play Metro City on Monday night in support of their 2007 album The Blackening. The last time they were here was to support The Blackening in 2008 and previous to that was in 2007 when they were also supporting The Blackening. They’re clearly proud of the album an have been touring it hard, coming to the end of a three year stint which has included three Australian visits, making it to Perth all three times. This time they got to play somewhere other than a big tin shed.

Machine Head don’t seem to like touring without friends. On the stage before them were Hatebreed to prime the audience. They did well, the crowd responding to their catchy hardcore soaked style of metal with stage dives and pits a la circle. All of which was encouraged wholeheartedly by vocalist Jamey Jasta who paraded around the stage with the gusto of a Beastie Boy, bandanna around his forehead, shouting obscenities in call and response with the crowd.

Hatebreed chug through their songs, rhythmic and chunky, focusing on energy, adrenalin and interaction to illicit a response. “Two words” said Jasta as he engaged the audience with Destroy Everything and they all seemed to be willing to oblige. Though the riffs served well in terms of inspiring amped up punters to bounce on each other’s toes, they weren’t at any risk of changing the face of music to come. This doesn’t seem to be their goal anyway, and they left knowing that what was their goal had been achieved, an anticipatory buzz rippling through crowd.

The applause spread, beginning with those with the sharpest eyes and eventually flooding the lower floor as it became apparent the figure wading through the darkened, red-filtered smoke was the mighty Flynn, Machine Head guitarist and vocalist Robb Flynn, and he was flanked by co-founder and bassist Adam Duce and lead guitarist Phil Demmel. On the signal of drummer Dave McClain they simultaneously let loose on Clenching the Fists of Dissent and the four of them swung into action like battle worn fighter pilots flying in perfect formation. Flynn feeling every word he sang, clenching his teeth as tightly as the fists of which he sung.

The last two times Machine Head performed in Perth were both at Robinson Pavilion, the tin shed at Claremont Showgrounds, which is not particularly conducive to good live music. In comparison Metro City is a veritable concert hall. Machine Head made the most of their surroundings with their monstrous live sound rivaling the hailstorm which only hours before had ravaged Perth city. No doubt the storm and its complications kept the lesser determined fans away but more than a few braved the weather and Flynn made sure to thank them, not only in words but with a forceful live show.

The double kick of Demmel’s drum kit thundered through the foundations of the building as they fired selections from their back catalogue like rather large olive sized hailstones. Reloading bullets such as Old and Ten Ton Hammer and flinging them with full force into the faces of their grateful fans. They found room to lob grenades from their somewhat awkward Supercharger period and pelted people with the machine gun fire from Imperium from their resurgent 2004 record Through the Ashes of Empires.

Then there were of course the persistent strikes from their magnum opus The Blackening which cracked around the room like bolts of lightning. Songs written with so much attention to detail that not a nook, nor a cranny, hasn’t been filled with some element of music. Not a drum fill or guitar lick has been spared in Now I Lay Thee Down or the Dimebag Darrell tribute Aesthetics of Hate or their penultimate tune for the night Halo.

If Halo was the penultimate song the ultimate could only be their debatably timeless classic Davidian. And it was. They’ve been using it to rile up the youth since 1994 and it’s lost none of it’s guile. Lashing out like vicious rain borne on gale force winds, happily angry folks just love to scream out “let freedom ring with the shotgun blast!” whether it makes sense to them or not. And they did, loudly.

Then as abruptly as it began it was over. And with the last cries of “Machine fucking Head” flickering out, everyone went home to assess the damage caused by both the meteorological and the metal storm of March 22nd 2010.