Live Review: Twelve Foot Ninja, Osaka Punch, Humality

Slamming stubbies and sweatin’ balls, rock connoisseurs squeeze into The Zoo on Saturday night to immerse themselves in the diverse metal stylings of Twelve Foot Ninja. The boys from Melbourne team up with support acts Humality and Osaka Punch as they embark on the Brisbane leg of their Sick national tour.

Humality open the night in black-button-up, schmick uniformity. Their ability to draw and command the attention of the still-arriving audience is impressive. As the band progresses through key tracks from EPs Nowhere (2014) and Now Here (2015), the audience as a single mass throbs to the drum beat, hypnotised. The charismatic, flooring energy of both frontman and instrumentalists proves that no matter whether you are support or headliner, if you bring the energy, the people will come and soak up all you have to offer.

Osaka Punch are eagerly welcomed by the now-well-lubricated crowd. In a showcase of their latest EP, 2016's Death Monster Super Squad, they deliver a smorgasbord of '70 to '90s pop, funk and R'n'B fused together with the vocal and rhythmic urgency of metal. It is surprising to see the perceivably hardened rock crowd respond so positively to a much lighter and effervescent performance. The faces of those in the audience convey their own surprise that they too are feelin’ this eclectic, cheeky, metallic hybrid.

A rumbling of cheers surges through the venue as it falls into darkness, heralding the arrival of tonight’s headliners. One by one, the members of Twelve Foot Ninja emerge out of the blackened stage, meeting a sea of devil's horns and raised glasses. The opening song is visually bathed in red lighting and incessant green strobes, snapshotting each movement or pose struck by the band. This creates a dark, ethereal atmosphere demanding the crowd’s immediate surrender. The boys launch into Mother Sky, which offers a lesson in the use of dissonance, fluctuating between modalities. It hasn’t taken long for the audience to coagulate into a fully functional mosh, complete with crowd-surfers. The tracks in tonight’s repertoire shift seamlessly between styles.

While watching Kin Etik unleash his gravelly vocals, he grooves with his shoulders like a wraith. The guitarists, Stevic MacKay (lead) and Rohan Hayes (rhythm and backing vocals), exhibit their skills in harmonics and scale passages. Furthermore, Kin and Rohan show off their harmonies in a barbershop melancholy. This must be what an underworld jazz club sounds like. Coming For You treats the audience to the fluidity of Salsa, before distorting the momentarily bright melody into a thrashing climax.

The high point of the evening is reached when the drummer stops mid-intro for what the audience initially thinks is a technical difficulty. However, he merrily brings a young man and lady on stage. Anticipation hangs in the air as Kin asks the guy if there is anything they could do to make their experience even better. The next moment, the guy gets on one knee and proposes to his girlfriend. This is received with celebratory exclamations from the audience, which grow louder following the young lady’s acceptance. The boys crack open a bottle of champas and raise a glass to the bride and groom to-be.

The band course through their latest single and tour namesake, Sick, renewing the audience’s energy before they close with One Hand Killing, which possesses the listener with its unrelenting guitar rhythm. Following a sung-speech intro, audience members raise their hands in elation and clap through each verse before bellowing out the chorus in a guttural roar. The band wring out every last drop of vigour in final notes, at last exhausting the audience.

The beauty in Twelve Foot Ninja’s music is that it is wildly intelligent. They, like Osaka Punch — albeit in an entirely different way — succeed in taking an exotic array of creative ingredients and delivering an innovative genus of music. They draw together the realms of metal, funk and djent, with psychedelic, jazz, Latin and even Bollywood influences, which feels like in theory shouldn’t exist, let alone work — but it does and, god, it is glorious. They are trailblazers in Australia’s metal (etc.) scene in the 2010s, and will hopefully continue to push the boundaries of their related genres and challenge our musical perceptions for a long time to come.