Kyuss Lives @ Fowler's Live,Adelaide (10/05/11)

Thu 12th May, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Despite Adelaide FL boss Rodney reneging on his promise to “bring the bucket”, there was a familiar smell when we walked towards Fowler’s on a cold Tuesday night. This, of course, made perfect sense. What also made sense was to bring a stoner rock band down from Byron Bay to act as the support this evening. Fort sounded pretty much like how you’d expect the band that tours with Kyuss to sound. This is by NO MEANS a bad thing! The (frankly mostly-male) crowd lapped it up. “Technical Difficulties” held up the first song, but once that uncompromising guitar tone started for real, the crowd streamed in from the bar like thirsty lizards to beer trough. The lesson here? Fuck the “intro”: just play the damned song. There ain’t nothin’ what works shinier than a damn good song!

Dougie would have loved to have seen Adelaide stoner band Wrench re-form especially for the gig, or at least Asteroid Belt, who has a few members from the defunct Adelaide stoner kings. That said, the lads from Fort re-formed to play with Kyuss, and rocked the fuck out of the place. I’d reform to play with Kyuss. I’d reform The Beatles to play with Kyuss. Hell, I’d re-form Tasmania to the Mainland to play with Kyuss. They also seemed like affable guys, stating that – unlike Adelaide – Byron Bay was usually dead on a Tuesday. When someone responded with, “So is Adelaide”, singer Andy Walker replied cheekily with “What the fuck is this, then?” He’s right. Best Tuesday Ever. Highlights: Recycled DIY Byron Aesthetic Chain-Link Mike Stand; Frikin’ Schweet Guitar Tone; Liberal Applications of 90s White Boy Dancing.

After a longer break than usual between bands (probably so everyone could go back to their cars and spark up), Kyuss Lives walked out to one of the hugest roars we’ve heard in Fowler’s. We were talking earlier about how we NEVER thought we’d EVER in our wildest rock fantasies get to see Kyuss play live, and after discussions with a fair number of fellow punters, it turned out to be a pretty common train of thought that night. This wasn’t supposed to happen; we were supposed to rue the fact that we missed Kyuss playing with Metallica back in the dickities when we were too young to get into licensed venues…for all eternity! Most of the room were still in a state of disbelief. I mean: THERE WAS NO MORE KYUSS!!! It was gone forever. To be honest, we still don’t believe it happened. But it did…and it was wonderful!

We realise there will be people who will claim it’s not Kyuss without Josh Homme, or Scott Reeder for that matter, and we definitely get that. Of course, once that particular elephant in the room is dealt with, anyone still sticking religiously to that line obviously wasn’t there. We got us some John Garcia, some Nick Olivieri (whose solo show at Jive was one of the greatest moments of 2010) and some Brant Bjork, so how the hell can you complain about THAT? If you REALLY want to know. Did we all enjoy the show? Hells yeah we did!!! Adelaide don’t pepper the stage with free blunts for just any old passing minstrels, you know.

New guitarist Bruno Fevery used to play in a Kyuss cover band, so obviously the guy is a huge fan. We were in a spot where we could only see him occasionally, and there were many times we forgot that it wasn’t our favourite rock n roll ranga up there. And didn’t care anyway. I mean, come on: KYUSS!!! It was maybe going to be a little weird of course, considering Nick Olivieri left the band after the second record, and Brant Bjork after the third. The songs from the later era had a harder edge due to Olivieri and Bjork’s playing style. Although Sky Valley is the favourite album for a number of fans, we thought Olivieri played Reeder’s basslines admirably. It was pretty easy to tell which ones he wrote because he was much more animated playing the earlier Kyuss material. The guy didn’t miss a note, though.

As you can imagine, they played a wide selection from the back catalogue, with Dougie’s favourite, Demon Cleaner, being the only omission for these fans. Even though he didn’t get to hear his favourite song, it was hard to stay sad when they rocked for 2 solid hours and included every era of the band. The set included Gardenia, Thumb, 50 Million Year Trip, El Rodeo... and many, many more! Highlights: Everything! And most of all, just how damned funky Kyuss are live! The lads have a confidence, a swagger, and an element of the booty-shaking sexy to them live that isn’t captured on their recordings. We absolutely love their albums, but never expected to boogie like Prince raised a love-child with Henry Rollins!

Although there wasn’t much in the way of onstage banter, all 4 members of Kyuss Lives were clearly excited to be playing these songs again, especially with all the love in the room. If Adelaide’s known for one thing (no, don’t mention serial killers or churches), it’s the generosity of it’s populace. Mostly, the band let the music do the talking. I pity the next band we see, because there is no way they’re going to be able to compete with the monumentously awesome event we witnessed. Especially considering we were lucky enough to get two encores, the last song being Green Machine. And for the record, we REALLY hope they do a new record, even sans-Homme. But we hope he goes and hangs out in the studio with them. We could handle Kyuss becoming a 5-piece!