The Mess Hall, Bridezilla,Cabins @ Jive, Adelaide(28/03/10)

Thu 1st Apr, 2010 in Gig Reviews

CHECK OUT ALL THE PHOTOS HERE.

In explaining why You Am I had not made a few of the commercially-oriented decisions that might have pushed them out into a more lucrative sphere of the music industry, Tim Rogers once uttered the immortal phrase: “We’re people passionate about making a racket, not racketeering.”

As the Mess Hall ripped through a truly satisfying set on the final night of their tour in support of For The Birds, the duo’s third album, it was easy to imagine their intelligent but ever-so-badass frontman Jed Kurzel explaining himself with much the same phrase. Jive was far from packed for the show, which had been moved at somewhat short notice from Saturday night to Sunday, but it really did not matter. This being the last night of a tour that took in 13 dates in 24 days, Kurzel and drummer Cec Condon were in the mood for making a racket, and it showed.

They had been preceded by Cabins and Bridezilla, who both offered their own distinct charms without always convincing everyone. Bridezilla have attracted plenty of hype in the right places and are soon to venture to Britain, where their combination of dissonance and femininity (it would not surprise if a bright spark in the UK deigned to label them the Velvet Undergirls) could play very well indeed. Featuring an array of “non-rock” instrumentation, the group provided a counterpoint to the simplicity of Kurzel and Condon, who wasted little time loosening up with an opening rendition of My Villain that put the flat album version to shame.

It has been commonly suggested that the Mess Hall are yet to capture their truly impressive intensity in a live setting on record, and this is certainly a valid criticism of the mellow territory ventured into on most of For the Birds. But in performance this is largely stripped away, allowing the scorching leads and vocals of Kurzel and the thumping drums of Condon to get the room shuddering with a combination of excitement and pure sonic vibration.

The last time the duo ventured to Jive, in support of the exceptionally arid Devil’s Elbow, Kurzel and the crowd had been muted. That night lacked the thudding power evident this time around, and can now be explained by the fact that Kurzel’s father – an Adelaide resident and noted cabbie – had died only a few days before that show. Well within his rights to cancel the show, Kurzel plugged on, and three years later his return to the same stage brought with it a far happier mood and energetic stage presence. The small crowd was noisier than the band had any right to expect, causing Kurzel to remark, in grateful but somewhat bewildered tones, that “this being a Sunday I really didn’t expect you guys to be like this … and what’s worse is I’ve got nothing to say to you. I’ve been saying good shit all tour!”

What he was unable to produce in terms of stage banter, Kurzel more than made up for by his singing and playing. A generous set offered plenty from each of the duo’s three albums, including Pulse, Disco 2, Metal and Hair, Red Eyes and Sunshine, Bell, Bare and Tijuana 500. Alongside Kurzel, Condon once again demonstrated the hypnotic effect of a drumming style that is magnificently tight while also entertainingly loose-limbed and primal – the by-products of a lanky physique and Afro-haircut. One of his chief achievements was to keep a newly acquired pair of glasses hanging precariously from his shirt throughout the night without once letting them fall.

To this point the pace had been more deliberate than breakneck, meaning a handful of miscreants in the crowd were limited to making only minor waves. But they were given plenty of reason to “pogo like a bastard” as the band launched into a colossal trio of tunes to close the main set. Fusing City of Roses into Pills, they were able to get hips shaking all over the room, before the raucous and strangely uplifting Keep Walking caused all manner of raucous behaviour down in front of the stage.

Resuming for the encore with the promise that he would take a request, Kurzel accepted the call for Silhouettes, a particularly quiet moment from For the Birds, while lightly admonishing those who had yelled continuously for Lock and Load. Instead of playing that staple, the final two songs were the haunting Long Time Death followed by a truly ominous stab at Lorelei, a tune of the sort of tone and subject matter that Nick Cave and John Hillcoat might approve of. Much like the Mess Hall themselves, it is a heavy thing indeed. A live album cannot arrive soon enough.

CHECK OUT ALL THE PHOTOS HERE.