Pets With Pets, Rat Vs Possum,Geoffrey O’Connor, Bum Creek@ The Tote, Melbourne(18/06/2011)

Tue 21st Jun, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Locals Bum Creek commenced an interesting bill at the Tote, assembled at the behest of Pets With Pets for the launch of their album, Saturday Aquatic Pixie Acid. Sometimes Bum Creek play music, sometimes they don’t. Fortunately on this occasion, they largely favoured the former. Experimenting with drones, unconventional sound sources and the audience’s patience, Bum Creek put on an show with distinct high points, such as a gibberish blue-eyed soul duet accompanied by mic feedback, as well as some inevitable flat spots. Although moments that don’t quite come off are inevitable with largely improvised music such as this, there were times where even the band didn’t seem to know what was going on, and worse, didn’t seem to care. There were, however, just enough high points to make it a worthy beginning to the evening.

For anyone familiar with the work of auteur Geoffrey O’Connor under the Crayon Fields moniker, what happened next was something of a surprise. O’Connor brought the spirit of prom night to the Tote. With the help of to synths, a drum machine, and an impressive laser light show, O’Connor performed karaoke renditions of what sounded like Spandau Ballet B-sides. Joke? I’m still not sure.

Next up were Rat vs Possum. Since bursting onto the Melbourne live scene two years ago, this kitchen-sink-tribal-rainbow troupe have come a long way. They’ve glimpsed mainstream success, having supported all manner of international touring acts, and from what they presented on Saturday night, they like what they’ve seen. Like it enough, that is, to upgrade their gear, add a member, and streamline their sound. Whilst they are still no-one’s idea of normal, their genre-mocking freak-outs of yore have been largely replaced by pulsing, acid-house inflected jams, with a dash of krautrock. It’s a fine combination, don’t get me wrong, but less thrilling than the edge-of-chaos spontaneity in which they used to specialise. RvP have also developed an unfortunate habit of having every member playing, all the time. I like a good synth work out as much as the next person, but four at once? All screeching, squealing, squalling and squelching? It was all just slightly too much. Still, they can get a party started like few other bands, and their new album promises to be interesting at the very least.

All of which brings us to the main event. As with label-mates Rat vs Possum and Love Connection, Pets With Pets are fond of exploring the outer realms of pop, stretching the song format all the way to the horizon; toying with the prospect of sensory overload along the way. Their opening song proved this, with a trance-like bongo – the daggiest of all percussion instruments – motif powering the song. Singer/antagonist Zayd Thring sprawled everywhere, spinning a dense web of guitar and singing god-knows-what in his inimitable pixie croak. Remarkably, he spun the fore mentioned web of guitar with what appeared to be a multi-coloured spinning toy UFO. More remarkably, the fore mentioned ingredients combined to hold the audience’s attention for the track’s entire five minutes-plus duration.

The following Milk and Blood Mountain was similarly successful, during which the band successfully emulated a Neu!-esque groove, allowing Thring to do his thing. In this case, that was to play a toy guitar through some truly mind-melting effects, while a strobe light affixed to his mic-stand throbbed away. Ten minutes in, there was still nothing resembling a conventional song, and seemingly no-one in the venue who could’ve cared less. Even so, when Pets With Pets returned from the outer solar system on the next couple of songs, there was a palpable sense of gratitude in the crowd, as a pair of relatively conventional early-Liars punk-funk workouts gave them something for the hips. Thring whipped out his UFO and returned to the astral plane soon thereafter, and the band returned to the task of filling the room with all manner of seductive textures, bubbles and smoke.

On the subject of gratitude though, it needs to be said that there was precious little shown from the band, with Thring and the band talking amongst themselves and generally indulging in smart-arsery at the audience’s expense. It’s a pity, as although Pets With Pets put on a pretty unique show, they could afford to be a little more grateful to their followers. Still, it didn’t prevent the gig from being an interesting and ultimately satisfying evening’s entertainment.