Electric Wizard – Gig Review & Photo Gallery 21st June @ Odeon Theatre, Hobart TAS

Posted on June 22, 2018 by walladmin

Electric Wizard
Odeon Theatre, Hobart Tas
21st June, 2018

Walking into the Odeon I couldn’t help but feel a bit disoriented. As a person who goes to every show to see every band, it was odd to be expecting just Electric Wizard to play.

I find it hard to reconcile the fact that it was just Electric Wizard on the bill. Personally you wouldn’t catch me anywhere near a show that goes for $60 an hour. Even one support band would have cured all my reservations. Windhand are in the same vein, they’d be more than welcomed. Shit, Devil Electric are Australian and I’m sure they’d have meshed perfectly, name and music both.

Arriving with fifteen minutes to spare, I’m struck by how many people are there. Go upstairs to get a drink: packed. Go down to the floor to grab another drink: packed. Walk two steps forward: impossible. The Odeon was practically groaning with the anticipation of feeling Electric Wizard grind our brains into bong material.

As the time drew near, “Electric Wizard” was projected onto the back of the stage, the outline doubling, tripling: I couldn’t take it anymore. Thankfully the opening of ‘Witchcult Today’ began and I could equalise myself. I heard the smoke machine on the stage and saw a plume of smoke filter out, then I turned behind me and saw another erupting from the crowd; how everyone manages to toke up in unison as soon as the music starts is boggling.

‘Black Mass’ was next and my neck was already starting to hurt. Electric Wizard manage to sound so heavy that is actually forces your head towards the floor; thickening the air around you until it’s difficult to definitively move and your only option is to swoon and sway with the rhythmic pulsing of their disgusting guitars. ‘Return Trip’ was even heavier, impossibly enough. The fuzz and the feedback adding something very authentic to the already otherworldly experience.

I don’t know why many other bands don’t use a projector screen, it really adds a whole other depth to stage presence if the band isn’t overly energetic. Sydney based Meniscus do it very well and it is done superbly by Electric Wizard. When was the last show you went to where you could listen to the best stoner doom and simultaneously see more blood covered tits than you will ever see again?

You’ve never listened to Electric Wizard until you’ve listened to ‘Funeralopolis’ while there’s some trippy, lava lamp type shit going on in the background. However, I must admit the point where they turned off the screen and it was pitch black while they transitioned to the earth shattering climax of the song was equally as hypnotising.

Overall, Electric Wizard was an immensely enjoyable trip into the depths of the most sluggish, turbid music the UK has to offer. These stoner metal kings have wrought their magicks on us and I am forever changed.

Review — Dylonov Tomasivich

Photo Gallery by Andrew Slaidins. Instagram @shot_by_slaidins
Please credit Wall of Sound and Andrew Slaidins if you repost any photos.

Electric Wizard (Note: Photos from Friday 22nd July)