Live Review: Violent Soho, The Smith Street Band, Sounds Like Sunset - Manning Bar

Sia may have stormed into the top spot on the ARIA charts, but it feels like Violent Soho is ruling the Australian music scene. They are riding high on Hungry Ghost, an album where all eleven tracks are legitimate candidates for single release.

The crowd at the Manning Bar smelled of hot damp socks, Brut and pot – the sort of unbridled angst-ridden testosterone not seen since Chisel toured east. Strange really, given the men of Violent Soho are the most down-to-earth, regular guys, so full of earnestness and love that John Butler looks like a cynical toff. But with a catch cry like “Hell fuck yeah”, lyrics that call bullshit on all social pretenses and chords that crunch, it's no wonder they tap into the male psyche in a way only giants like Foo Fighters or Motörhead can. They played every song you'd want to hear. Opening with the killer Dope Calypso, throwing in Jesus Stole My Girlfriend, Tinderbox, and of course, Covered In Chrome.

They are riding high on Hungry Ghost, an album where all eleven tracks are legitimate candidates for single release.

These days it seems like rock has become a vapid word, needing to always be paired with some other genre to afford cred. Well, Violent Soho don't care for crap, and have earned their cred because they simply rock. Hard. Every night.

If Violent Soho are the kings of rock today, surely The Smith Street Band are the poets laureate. Wil Wagner is the Vonnegut of our neighbourhood, writing out the most personal of truths for others to grasp in kindred hope. Smith Street Band songs are proverbial journeys, taking you through literal fragments of life to realise cohesion in the madness.

When played live this means you often lose sense of where songs begin and end. You find yourself part of the jam, picking out phrases relevant to you, screaming about getting Young Drunk and weeping at the rawness of Surrender, “And I was comfortably killing myself in a myriad of different ways”.  Ducks Fly Together and Sunshine And Technology featured, as did newbie I Don't Want To Die Anymore, and the track that started it all, Get High, See Mice. As they search for a name for their new album, don't be surprised to see them back in Sydney again before 2014 is finished.

Sounds Like Sunset opened the night in what seemed like an act of deference to the underrated masters of Australian shoegaze. These guys are a killer band misplaced in time. They're either 15 years too late for the My Bloody Valentine era or ten years too early for Deerhunter and co. Never fear though, they have a new album cut and are ready to do a Neutral Milk Hotel, rebirthing some post-post-rock drone that may finally garner them the attention they deserve.