Mudhoney, Precious Jules, TheTreatment @ The Zoo, Brisbane(05/06/11)

Wed 21st Dec, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Tonight The Zoo is packed for Seattle legends, Mudhoney. The band have brought out the best and brightest for their first Brisbane show in years. Rarely touring anymore, there is an atmosphere in the air of something special happening tonight and the wait is almost unbearable.

The Treatment unfortunately play to a small crowd, in part due to their late billing and early time slot. Still, the band appear to be enjoying themselves and put on a good show despite the audience’s preoccupation with the bar and smoking outside.

With tonight’s headliners looming, Melbourne band Precious Jules with heavy shoes to fill. They draw a reasonable sized crowd tonight and they are quite well received with a number of punters getting into their blend of hard hitting rock. While technically proficient as the set progresses, the audience favours queuing up at the bar. The set was good despite the bizarre glam undertones of their music.

In an almost blink of an eye, the turn around is done and Mudhoney take to the stage with a deafening cheer let up from an already eager crowd. The band are killing it, frontman Mark Arm ’s voice is flawless, embarrassing contemporaries of his age with his natural talent.

Banter is rare tonight and unneccessary as the band power through a career spanning set. Hate The Police (Dicks) sends the crowd into a mosh frenzy with audience members crowd surfing and getting up on stage in a scene that sends The Zoo back in time to the peak of the nineties. Naturally when Touch Me I’m Sick gets it’s ariing halfway through the set, everyone sings the chorus.

Fellow guitarist Steve Turner is also performing a show to remember with his red hollow body guitar being pushed to its limits. The slow building When Tomorrow Hits off the band’s self titled 1989 album is another notable highlight sounding clean and crisp through The Zoo’s PA.

The band take part in a brief encore after a set that’s lasted ninety minutes already. If I Think off the group’s much celebrated debut EP Superfuzz Bigmuff leads the encore and is tight and hauntingly brilliant as Arm screams the tracks chorus through an endless reverb while the audience tears apart the venue board by board. The band are living legends in the alternative rock world and as they leave the stage tonight they have reminded the Brisbane audience why.