Zeta Theory, Loose Unit,Anaemic, Tantrum @ TheWhitesands, 29/05/04

Tue 1st Jun, 2004 in Gig Reviews

What do you do when your best friend has recently gotten back from America after a year or so of living there and can’t get out to see many bands as they live down near Pinjarra? What do you do when it’s just been their birthday and you can’t afford to get them anything? What do you do if you don’t know what to do and none of your friends from outside of the music industry come? The answer is simple: promote a gig and rub it in your friends’ faces. And that’s what I did (except the revenge part).

On May 29, Zeta Theory, Loose Unit, Anaemic and Tantrum came together to celebrate the births of two best friends (post birthdays) and to have some fun. And it sure was fun that was had.

Opening the night was Tantrum. This rock (because they’re not punk) band has been together for two years or so now and already, they’re producing tunes that aren’t faulty in any way. With catchy riffs, vocal lines, excellent bass lines and wicked back-beat, all come together to produce music of essence and awe. The energy exerted on stage, no matter how each individual member feels is huge and you just want to get up there, jump and down with them. I reminisce of Gyroscope when I see these boys (who aren’t really boys at all, but age doesn’t matter now does it?) with the energy, the power, the determination and the want to produce something awesome with what they have. I believe that they will too – if not now, soon.

Next were Anaemic. Every time I see them, their songs have been re-arranged but always to produce something better. Progression is the way to go and these guys are going. Their new song is a development from the old and shows some hope of something better than a small time, small town band. With a catalogue of heavy rock, songs with words that speak and great musicianship, Anaemic are bound to eventually create some hype and maybe rearrange their songs at least once more to produce something even more outstanding.

Loose Unit. What can I say? They’re rock, they’re sometimes dirty rock, they’re sometimes surfer rock, but they’re rock nonetheless. Each time I’ve seen them play, they’ve played to their best ability (that includes with a fractured wrist) and they’re never short of amazing. Although they didn’t play my favourite song, they played excellently and played some of their new material. It’s a little bit different in terms of arrangement to their older stuff but it’s still good old rock and worth taking the trek to listen to them. Besides, why play the same songs for 10 years and not get any further than your local pub because it’s only those songs that local oldies want to hear? On with progression say I.

Zeta Theory closed the night off for us and it was exciting. Blair walking around in circles because he couldn’t stand still for one second, Stef and Tony playing their guitars ever so serenely, Rob joining in on the circular pattern and Chris sitting on his chair playing his drums so easily. But it’s not about what they’re doing (even though that’s one of the best parts of seeing a band), it’s about the music, how good it was and how fun it was to jump up and down ever so crazy-like too. They couldn’t pull off ten songs in 45 minutes but I didn’t care and as it seemed, nor did anyone else. I can understand why people think that they sound a bit like Incubus but that’s most definitely not a bad thing, especially since Incubus are so good.

All in all, this was the best birthday party that I’ve ever organised. Who needs friends of yore that don’t care about music when you’ve got friends who are in bands and more importantly, in bands that you like more than the sole of your shoe?

And in closing, I’d like to say thankyou to the Whitesands, the bands, to the people who came and to music. Party on!