Children Collide @ Capitol,Perth (25/04/11)

Wed 27th Apr, 2011 in Gig Reviews

ANZAC day saw punters pack in to Capitol for a very fitting serve of Australian music. It was an education of sorts on the life-cycle of Aussie bands; a fledgling first support full of potential, the tweenage familiarity of a band about to break and, finally, the balls out attitude of a national success. The rest of Perth city may have been dead as ever, but within Capitol’s walls was a sucker punch of energy. Could there have been a better way for Children Collide to close their national tour? Unlikely.

First support The Growl treated a small, but happy, crowd to a unique brand of sexy garage. Vocalist and guitarist Cameron Avery sounds like Michael Buble finally went on a bender, got properly bad-ass and bought apple-red Gretsch to boost his sex-appeal. Their down and dirty style is characterised best in Live a Little, which sounds so damn subversive that just listening to it makes you want to do bad, bad things. The sharp and punchy contrasts in Smoke it Down to the Bone was a neat surprise, and actually worked.

The Growl’s double drumming line-up never seemed excessive, with both Michael Jelinek and Sam Kuzich working eclectic percussion additions – a keg and a Sesame Street style trashcan – to perfection. Finishing with a suitably funked up and filthy cover of Sons of Anarchy’s John the Revelator closed their set perfectly.

The Growl – Smoke it Down to the Bone

Young Revelry were next, with a raucous heavy rock opener. Kudos to drummer Shaun Sibbes who smashed it out from the get-go (even breaking his bass kick halfway through the set.) The decent radio play of 1973 made it a familiar tune to most, but the live performance was more than a little disappointing. For some reason, bassist and birthday boy Tom King insisted on playing to either Sibbes or his bass amp (what audience?) and the entire outfit was shockingly disorganised. Amongst all the fiddling with various knobs and switches onstage, Sebastian Astone’s vocals were all but drowned out by his band. That is, when he wasn’t playing his guitar facing the back of the stage.

But, when they finally got their shit together their delivery was smashing. You and I was the sole set stand-out with frantic guitar and a big angst-tastic sound. Yet despite drawing a big crowd, Young Revelry only earned a smattering of applause with each song, perhaps due to the fact that Astone was barley decipherable when singing with the echo effects on his mic.

Unfortunately, their choice to end with a drawn out and crappy noise breakdown was ill-conceived. It was so boring that even Astone gave up and stood examining his beer. The highlight of their lacklustre performance? Peter Levenson-Glower’s fancy footwork on lead guitar.

Not one for primadonna drama, Children Collide promptly appeared on stage in all their garage glory. Without pause for thought, they ripped into Chosen Armies, creating an instant mosh in the front half of the room and setting the full throttle pace for the rest of the night. Johnny Mackay and Heath Crawley are the very definition of hectic; throwing their whole bodies into the music and careening around the stage like utter madmen. Across the Earth took the moshpit of drunken twits to a violent new level, only to be upped by riotous sing-along Skeleton Dance. In fact, the set would provide very few breaks for anyone wanting to escape the deadly pit into the nosebleed section. The grungy trio blasted through old and new songs, introducing Arrows with “…and this is what we sound like now.”

Not that they’ve strayed very far from their garage roots. Farewell Rocketship was arguably the mildest song of the set, and even that was much grungier and more hard-hitting (read: better) than the studio version. Such is the in-your-face nature of a Children Collide performance. It was basically impossible to pick the crowd favourite between the aforementioned tracks and Jellylegs, My Eagle and the punky Social Currency.

Regrettably, the roaring popularity of each of these songs proved just how foul a thuggish Perth crowd can be. Even a hardened punter would have been taken aback by the out-and-out violence on show and blatant disregard for…well, anything. One unfortunate roadie had his work cut out for him trying to protect the band’s equipment on stage from the hoards of ignorant crowd surfer/stage divers, and copping a foot to the face just about sent him into a rage blackout.

Children Collide certainly relished their role as riot rock kings, but Mackay seemed only mildly amused by the childish antics of his fans. He attempted to protect his gear by throwing his foot in the face of any rabid drunk who tried to rush the stage, and refused calls to skull his bottle of wine – instead, spraying cheap red in their faces to “[prove] a point to you dickheads.” He made the band’s stance on ‘encores’ very clear (hallelujah!) and during a schizophrenic instrumental finale, dove off the stage himself for a spot of crowd-surfing. While it is this very bratty attitude that punters adore, security seemed less impressed – Mackay was almost thrown out himself, despite being one third of the main act.

Mayhem notwithstanding, this ANZAC day treat of young Aussie music had something many other gigs lack – complete cohesion. It was striking just how perfect both support acts were to support Children Collide – and the trio themselves may yet prove to be the voice of a loud-mouthed generation. A single fault was the use of the final chord from each song to fill the time until the beginning of the next. The result was a long, loud note which rang out unnecessarily – really, boys, sometimes quiet is okay.

Nevertheless, their rag-tag, irreverent and pull-no-punches approach is the new Aussie sentiment, and a fitting one at that.