Live Review: The Sinking Teeth, Grenadiers, Sparkspitter, West Thebarton Brothel Party - The Jade Monkey

The new Jade Monkey has to be one of the coolest venues around, with its chandeliers and green curtain backdrops finding their new home between two churches.

Though, like smaller venues, the stage space isn’t massive, that becomes interesting when you have a band with four guitarists, bass, drums and a percussionist. West Thebarton Brothel Party used every centimetre to fit themselves and their gear onto the stage and still showed the sort of energy that you’d expect on a larger festival stage, making for a very entertaining situation, but that didn’t dampen their energy.

Sparkspitter had a little more space to work with, sporting half the guitars, bass and drums. The maths of having four instruments and only three members didn’t make sense in the beginning. Each song began with the drummer Reg Goldsmith looping layer upon layer of guitar, melding into this mix a lot of guitar tones that played through the entire song. Everything came together when the drums, bass and the other guitar started; it was a beautiful mix of punchy drums and bass. The looped guitar tones were rhythmic, leaving the remaining guitar in lead. Every song kept building and made for a really good transition into the following act.

And what an act – Grenadiers know how to kick a show into the next gear, with some good old-fashioned three-piece rock. Tonight was their last show in a stint as supports for The Sinking Teeth around the nation. There was no slow build into a chorus, the guitar riffs starting straight away, with the back-up of punchy bass and strong fast drums. Even with a bass head issue after the first song, they worked quickly to have it resolved. A beer in hand listening to these three on stage playing song after song are what Fridays were made for, which was clear by the crowd squeezed in this intimate room.

The Sinking Teeth are also a band that doesn’t waste time, taking the crowd by surprise when lead vocalist and guitarist Nick Manuell started preaching and yelling to get in from outside. It was a shame the crowd was slightly smaller because the mix of Manuell’s aggressive vocals, the catchy guitar and bass with the impressive speed and Ben Stewart’s skill on drums, everyone should have taken a moment to go out on the street and pull a stranger into the venue; no one would have been upset after hearing two bars worth of this Victoria-based trio.

After hearing the entire set you had the desire to hop into the car with a couple of mates and a carton of beer then road trip to the final two shows of the You Can’t Build A Bike Out Of Muffins tour (which is easily the best name for a tour ever). Even the mid-song banter between Manuell and bassist Julian Doan was enjoyable and added more personality to the band but didn’t take away from their impressive version of rock’n’roll.