Live Review: Front End Loader, Giants Of Science, SixFtHick, Grieg

The dim interior of Nundah’s Prince Of Wales Hotel looks like it hasn’t altered since the ‘80s – the perfect setting for this guitar-laden gig – and the room’s already heady rock’n’roll credentials are fortified early when Mad Macca (of The Onyas and Cosmic Psychos fame) takes his spot behind the bar overseeing activities (you don’t get many beers pulled with a more appropriate heritage than that).

Soon more familiar visages are also holding court onstage, with the onslaught of relative newcomers Grieg, who are made up of John Mercer (Dick Nasty, Undead Apes) on guitar, Tamara Bell (HITS) on bass and Alex Gillies (No Anchor) on drums. It’s primarily instrumental – Mercer offering scabrous vocals at times, occasionally joined in bursts by Bell – and unrelentingly brutal. The percussion is thunderous and everything else tuned low and nasty – it’s all pretty bleak and ominous, although there’s plenty of melody amidst the maelstrom, and towards the end things almost get catchy despite the metal breakdowns and mayhem.

The next act is far more familiar – the lads of SixFtHick have been pummelling eardrums and sensibilities around these parts for decades now and they’re showing no signs of tiring, the Corbett brothers out front still as wild and cantankerous as ever. Ben is offstage into the crowd by midway through the second song – a new (slow) record – and they smash through the spastic Boxcutter Blues and the tight-as-hell I Was Just Cleaning It And It Went Off with nary a pause for breath. Both White Light Wet Heat and Flight Of The Shitbird are as deliciously deranged as ever, and the sleazy Glue In Your Locks towards the end showcases a band still on top of their game despite less frequent appearances of late – hopefully that’s an aberration rather than a trend.

There’s a strong crowd in attendance by the time fellow locals Giants Of Science take their places and kick off with a blistering early rendition of I Got It, the four-piece clearly another who’ve been done no harm by their recent lay-off. The sound is piercing and frontman Ben Salter is in fine fettle, as are the band as a whole as they hammer through Zodak (Evil Cosmic Enforcer) and then dig deep into the back catalogue for old pairing The Letter B and Complete This Progression (neither which have lost any luster over the years). Anchors Up finds Giants showing off their knack for nuance – both intricate and incredible – and after a brand new track called Nutty and another relatively recent offering in the form of Tower Of Toowong (from last year’s What’s Wrong With You And Why return EP) they complete a strong showing with a typically fiery cover of Sonic’s Rendezvous Band’s Electrophonic Tonic.

It’s getting late and there’s a lot of love (and booze) in the room by the time Sydney rock luminaries Front End Loader finally deign us with their presence after many years of not visiting Brisbane, and they still go straight into their default faux-surliness mode even though it’s clear that they’re having a blast. After the rousing Bury Your Dead, Mademoiselle they segue The Original into Decisions and the place is going nuts, beer flying everywhere amidst the joyous abandon. The two frontmen – Davis Claymore and Bow Davis – have distinct but complementary styles in both writing and delivery which adds a cool diversity to the band’s overall sound, while the rhythm section (Pete Kostic on drums and Richard Corey on bass) hold things down with precision and add plenty of personality into the mix.

During No Shame we see crowd surfers pushing down into the crowd with their feet on the roof like the (low-ceilinged) good old days, but it has no adverse affect on proceedings and the band carries on with a string of belters including I Like To Help Out Where I Can, the evergreen Pulse and the awesomely catchy Read Your Mind. They finish an awesome set with All I Wanted Was A Cigarette, and despite being coaxed back for a quick swansong before stumps most people are already wondering how long it will be this time before this great band bothers to stumble northwards again. An awesome night of suburbs-rocking from the get-go.