The Drones, Adalita @ The Gov22/10/2011

Tue 25th Oct, 2011 in Gig Reviews

As far as double bills go The Drones supported by Magic Dirt front woman Adalita has all the hallmarks of being an absolute ripper and later proved to be exactly that. Adalita was the perfect opener, adding some nice contrast to the bill. Her music seems poles apart from her days fronting Magic Dirt, but it is great to see her doing something quite different. Playing songs from her self-titled album, it was quite a journey, really stepping it up from her recent show a few months ago at The Grace Emily Hotel. Some standouts include the likes of Fool Around and Hot Air.

The Drones have come a long way since I last saw them and they are definitely one of those bands you have to see at least once. It’s an intense music experience and their music is exhausting, brutal, lyrically honest and uncompromising in every sense of the word, but more than satisfying. The tour is supporting their must have DVD A Thousand Mistakes which documents a career spanning thirteen years and five studio albums. It was a solid crowd that assembled to see The Drones and there wasn’t anything elaborate about their stage get up but was all about the music. Right from the get go Gareth Liddiard was uncompromising and unleashed his fury in his vocals painting his emotive tales and making the audience feel what he wants them to feel. The set list covered all their albums and there were some cheers for The Best You Can Believe In and the haunting rendition of Locust from the 2005 album ‘Wait Long By The River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By’.

There wasn’t a huge amount of interaction between songs as it seemed like a quick pause to regroup before throwing everything at the next song. From here it was the albums ‘Havilah’ and ‘Gala Mill’ which dominated the rest of the set, with the likes of Jezabel and I’m Here Now proving to be big crowd favourites. Gareth asked the crowd if they had bought the DVD, saying if they hadn’t, they could piss off. That was followed by the casual query of what was happening in Adelaide? With a reply of “not much,” he said no more sanctimonious bullshit, ploughing on with the remainder of the set and mustering all of his being to throw in to songs such as The Minotaur and Stop Dreaming from the ‘Miller’s Daughter’ album.

The encore was raucous; punters left with the likes of Sixteen Straws and the rough and tumble of Oh Sister etched in the minds to bring this beast to an end. Unfortunately, there was no Shark Fin Blues, but having said that I’d imagine there would be a whole host of other possible inclusions that were looked over. The Drones were fantastic and it was great to see show at its most purest, without trying to bluff or fool the punter with gimmicks and the like.

Click HERE to check out the FL live gallery from this show.