Frenzal Rhomb @ The Gov,Adelaide (8/9/11)

Tue 13th Sep, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Frenzal Rhomb are touring the country after releasing their eleventh record Smoko At The Pet Food Factory. Supported by US skate punks Teenage Bottlerocket, and Melbourne screamo-boys Hawaiian Islands. Frenzal must be used to selling out shows, Thursday night was no exception.

Hawaiian Islands are a five piece from Melbourne that played to an inevitably, scarce, early crowd that looked unable move. The song Valerie stood out, but that was about it. When the lead-singer decided to bore the crowd with his financial situation, people went back to drinking their beer. Maybe it was the uninterested crowd, or just the fact that we all knew Frenzal were going to unleash hell once on stage, but Hawaiian Islands didn’t get a pass-mark for me.

US outfit Teenage Bottlerocket, who have an awesome skate-punk sound, put on a hugely impresive set. With gang vocals, showing shades of early Pulley and U.S. Bombs. These guys are playing every show on Frenzal’s tour and fans should be stoked about that. Highlights were Don’t Want to Go, Skate or Die and Call in Sick. I couldn’t help wondering how good a full set would be from them. Hopefully they come back to Oz on their own terms.

I’ve had Frenzal Rhomb’s Bird Attack in my head for 2 weeks, and had been looking forward to this show for some time, not only to hear them on the back of a new record but also, to enter the infamous Frenzal most-pit, by both of which I would not be disappointed. It’s crazy how much love the boys get from their fans, as I looked around the pumped crowd, every demographic was represented. Opening with All Your Friends, from iconic record Meet the Family, the mosh-pit started get brutal, and sweaty as hell. Some good-humoured banter ensued, with The Doctor (Lindsay Mc Dougall) referring to the crowd as inbred. This only fired the crowd up more and when You Can’t Move Into My House was played, everybody in the room got one back, screaming “Fuck You” in unison.

Frenzal’s place in Australian music has been cemented for a long time, and it not hard to see why, with a huge back catalogue spanning almost 20 years. Classics like Mr Charisma, Punch In The Face and Genius were all played along with many more. But it was new track Bird Attack that sparked and all out war in the pit. So much so that the boys stopped the song half way through due to the growing number of people getting up on stage to then dive straight back off. Once some kind of order was restored, the crowd could finally scream out the three bird species mentioned in said song. The harmonies in Knuckleheads were epic.

The song that could easily be the soundtrack to many ‘nineties’ kid’s up-bringing, was up next and went off. Never Had So Much Fun was the track that signalled the end to what was a premium punk show, I have the bruises to prove it. If there is any negative to the night it was people that get into the mosh-pit exclusively to take people out. Nine out of Ten fat lips.