Live Review: Thee Oh Sees, Orb, Power

It's been nearly three years since Thee Oh Sees graced our distant island with their presence, breaking from an annual tradition of playing Down Under to scores of wild fans to take an indefinite hiatus. The pain of absence did not last long as John Dwyer and his band of merry men announced an Australian tour boasting a new line-up with the return of the double drummer attacks of past. Tonight is the final of three shows in three nights at Howler, the San Franciscan garage godfathers acknowledging their place in the heart of many Melbourne music fans.

Orb have been doing their rounds recently, opening for many international and local heavies. The trio give it hell, throwing grunting, sludgy doom all over the howler band room. With electro-robotic vocals and hard, heavy riffs Orb are immensely powerful despite being almost motionless, trudging methodically through a groove, occasionally lurching forward to hit a hard bar.

Power are raucous, screeching and wailing boogie punk rock, covering Johnny B Goode under crackling confidence with a sharp Aussie twang. The local sharpie spunks turned heads late last year with the release of their first record Electric Glitter Boogie, gaining the respect of hard-rock heads. Unfortunately they're cut down when an amp blows, the sudden break in their brash output slowing the pace of the night. Fortunately a quick amp replacement allows the band to kick into Serpent City, a blistering high voltage piece with a riff to die to. The crowd is drawn back in — Power is not here to please anyone, but they do anyway.

The energy that surrounds Thee Oh Sees is present in every member of the audience tonight — simply stepping on stage is enough for the band to set that energy bubbling forth, and anything that follows the first chord is pure ecstatic mayhem. Within seconds of John Dwyer scratching his guitar to life the crowd is transformed, Thee Oh Sees inspire youthful exuberance and disorder. I Come From The Mountain bursts and renders any cohesion of time or space non-existent as patrons throw themselves into each other without any reason but energy and lack of inhibition. Dwyer is clearly stoked to be on stage as he has been the past two nights, his gremlin-styled falsetto cutting through their set, his wild movements only whipping the crowd further into their own madness. Tidal Wave is a surf-drenched smoked out crackler that gives double drummers Ryan Moutinho and Dan Rincon a chance to bash out some perfectly in unison snare attacks.

The band delves into their back catalogue while also smashing out powerful excerpts from their most recent release Mutilator Defeated At Last. Web is a psyched out wobbling track that pulsates through the room before twisting into a scattering, swinging hyperspace jump. The set is consistently Oh Sees, fast-paced and reeling with volume probably above regulation — the band seem intent on rupturing as many eardrums as possible on their last night in the city. Dripping in sweat, Dwyer announces their last song is an old one, and a long one, before wrenching into their 2011 track Contraption/Soul Desert.