Live Review: Isaiah Mitchell & The Black Elk Medicine Band, Scum Of The Earth, Mount Mountain

It was interesting to see how the Perth boys Mt Mountain had developed from the first time I saw them at Mojos a few months back; it's thoroughly exciting to see a new young psychedelic band come out of the woodwork. Their sound remains complex and progressive, as seen particularly in tracks White Horses and Divides. The runthrough of their EP OMED showed how Mt Mountain have mastered creating beautiful and eerie rock through wandering guitar riffs and alternating tambourine shakes.

Diverging from the Mt. Mountain set, I can only describe Scum Of The Earth as a massive wall of noise. With guitar and vocals from Joe Ryan (Pond), and drums by Jesus lookalike Nick Odell, their 30-minute set was predominantly made up of bone-rattling instrumentals. Their set was long, heavy and pure rock and roll from start, with only repetitive “scum of the earth” and “woo” lyrics resonated around the room. It was bursting in your face, and intricately intense.

A few minutes later Isaiah Mitchell (Earthless) and The Black Elk Medicine band were up on stage. Mojos had been pretty full from Mt Mountain's first set; it was a great presentation for Perth psych rock fans for sure. Their sound was a combination of Isaiah's guitar shredding, Robert McManus (ex-Grey Daturas and Monarch) and Nick Allbrook's (Pond, ex-Tame Impala) nomadic bass rhythms. To many devastated Tame Impala fans, Monday night only cemented the idea that Nick Allbrook is, as Tame's Kevin Parker explained, “going off to do what creative people do”. No need to worry about him giving up on his artistic and musical aspirations any time soon.

The evening embodied alternate rock through the suave sounds of Mt. Mountain, the shoulder shaking noise of Scum Of The Earth and intense intricacies of Isaiah and the Black Medicine Band. Being a passionate psychedelic rock fan, the set was perfect as the night bundled together three very different styles seamlessly.