Howl, Neon Love, In Tongues @The Workers Club, Melbourne(16/10/2010)

Mon 25th Oct, 2010 in Gig Reviews

If there was a common theme among the bands that played The Workers Club last Saturday night, it would have been energy. Each band exhibited their own form of on stage antics and appearing to try and ‘out dance’ the previous band.

In Tongues graced the stage first. Fronted by the eccentric Luke Fraser, who was sporting a quiff that defied the laws of gravity, he introduced the band and then led them into 5 Solid Years. As the band rocked in unison, he jumped and twirled about the stage like some sort of demented marionette. A unique style of dancing that was almost as angular as the music it accompanied. Although informing the responsive crowd they hadn’t played a show in a while, the band clearly had not been lost for practice. The precision playing of tracks from their self titled debut EP among a few new ones was more than enough to get the already worked up crowd into a frenzy. It was hard not to get into it and I found myself at times ready to dive headfirst into the mosh. In Tongues ended their short set with guitar heavy Ping Wizard, and with Fraser spending most of the song in the pit it was left to guitarists Andy Sims and Jack Tee to direct the crowd. They did it with style and with that, In Tongues ended almost as quickly as they started.

Neon Love are a diverse band, with their songs ranging from summery grunge to gothic post-punk to straight up indie-pop, and the members appearing just as varied. They played a sloppy set, the reasoning for which was made clear when co-frontman Nipuna Jayesekera announced that; “this may be one of our last shows”. In spite of this they seemed to be having a ball, a vibe which was gratuitously reflected by the crowd.

No member of the band really seemed to have a permanent role, with everyone swapping between 2 or 3 instruments in just as many songs. The highlight of the set via a cover of The Flying Lizards own cover of Barrett Strong’s 1950’s song, Money (That’s What I Want). With Jayesekera taking a punters purse midway and placing her money down his pants so that she could “retrieve it later”.
Neon Love ended with Holiday, which I personally thought was fitting for them as it includes the repeated lyrics “and the music is dead”, an obvious reference to the state of the band.

With The Workers Club nearing capacity, Howl finally took the stage. Wearing shirts seemingly older than they were, they blasted the audience with bass driven opener The Only Reason You Came. It didn’t take long for the crowd to get into it, with the more passionate fans pushing their way forward and bouncing off each other as if they were in some sort of makeshift human pinball machine. The more conservative punters, however, limited themselves to the sides of the venue and appreciated the awesomeness that is Howl.

Launching their second EP, Howl didn’t slow down at all during their set and when it came time for title track Brothers In Violence, the temperature in the small venue had risen substantially. Drummer Daniel Marie was obviously feeling it as by that point he was down to his underwear. It was during this song we found out why too: he absolutely punishes his kit when he plays.

During the show, it was noticeable that Howl were willing to offer something different to their album tracks in the live context, and in almost every case songs for the night included an extended intro or outro. This was most evident on Cabin Fever when they introduced it by covering Clint Eastwood by Gorillaz, which, despite the difference of genres, was very much appreciated by the crowd.

Announcing that they weren’t going to do an encore as they “only really have 8 songs,” Howl finished off with an extended version of I Hear It’s Love. The song remains an obvious favourite and took the gig to a new level, with even a few members of the band jumping off stage and joining in with their fans’ shambolic dancing, guitars and all, stirring them up into even more of a frenzy. It was with that that Howl ended the night and a very successful EP launch.

CHECK OUT ALL THE MADNESS FROM THE NIGHT HERE