Usurper of Modern Medicine @Manhattans, Perth (06/10/10)

Sun 10th Oct, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Kitty Kat Club and the Usurper of Modern Medicine shook the walls of Manhattans on Wednesday night and no doubt the old folks home behind it from whence so many of their noise complaints must come.

It’s a crying shame these two bands didn’t make it into a showcase event for One Movement this year, because they’re doing something that most definitely does not sound like all the other indie [insert any hyphenated genre here] that is on offer at mainstream festivals (and which some Oz bands seem to be doing their utmost to copy). This homogenisation was remarked on by talent scouts and festival bookers more than once during the One Movement Musexpo conference. Another booking agent noted the very few Perth bands who had made it into the showcases – A trip to Manhattans would have let them know that there is more to our music scene than carbon copies of last year’s breakthrough bands.

The Kitty Kat Klub is French Rockets without the light show and with slightly shorter songs, Although the last song was introduced with a limbering stretch from drummer Roger Poustie and the words “this one’s about 20 minutes long, so sit back..” New track, Mandy Summers was played to the backdrop of The Doors film and unintentionally synched with the scene where Morrison sings The End to create quite a mesmerising and disturbing experience. The entire set was much longer than it seemed, all tracks having that singular French Rockets ability to lure you into the space at the back of your mind where your thoughts rarely go, where things don’t feel so immediate.

The Usurper of Modern Medicine Is one Injured Ninja, One Carbuncle and what looked like all of the Gilgamesh drummers distilled into one Cameron Hines. You might recognise Hines as the enthusiastic bass player in Mile End or Mongrel Country, and you will be pleased to note that on drums he is at least as enthusiastic. He has skills as well, as does Steven Hughes, wielding a bass axe for a change, and watching their intense enjoyment was hugely entertaining. Lets take it as read that these guys are musical savants and can pretty much do anything they like on the instrument of their choice and it will sound good. Lyrically, their songs were pretty sparse, with “takes one to know one” or was it; take one to know one/ take one to no one? It was one or all variants on the theme anyway, and it turned into something of a mantra. You know when you say one word often enough it starts to sound different in your head and even the meaning of it goes a bit mushy? That’s what happened.

An excellent night was had by all; all being considerably more people than you would expect for a Wednesday night in Vic Park.