Lo! - Gig Review - 17th June @ Crowbar Sydney
Lo!
Crowbar, Sydney NSW
June 17th, 2023
Supports: Black Lava, Isua
Only a dickhead would stop in at Maccas on the way to Sydney’s Crowbar, especially on a night as cold as tonight. With a big f*ck off smoker out the back and a menu chockers full of comfort food, you’d be flat out convincing me that a bag full of poison prepared by a disinterested dirty teenager is better than the smashed burger these legends at Crowbar are offering up. Along with the 16 beers on tap and the plethora of old vinyl album covers and old tour posters adorning the walls, you’re be better off getting here, grabbing a pint, and giving yourself a wee tour of the joint, instead of basking in the neon glow of the golden arches.
It wasn’t too long ago, in the wake of covid, that we were all sitting at tables in the live entertainment area of Crowbar to watch any number of local acts get up on stage to ply their trade. It was weird but worth it as we witnessed the Aussie music family step forward and grace Australian stages in the absence of an international touring presence. As a result the local music scene began to flourish and what we have now is a roster of some of the most entertaining, diverse and consummate live performers in heavy music today. One such band is tonight's interstate favourites Lo! who are armed and ready to celebrate their new album The Gleaners and they’ve only gone and brought a couple more bands along for the ride.
First to grace the stage is Melbourne sludge/doom/metal outfit Isua, a band that the lads from Mountain Wizard Death Cult have been itching to watch, but aren’t entirely sure how to pronounce. “It’s IS-uWAHH”…”NA, It’s ISS-OO-WUH..” and so on while nicking chips from the plates of nearby diners. Like the fashion in which tonights food was cooked, Isua kick off proceedings low and slow. It’s hardly a cheerful affair as vocalist Mike Nolan sounds like Sam Kinison had broken glass jammed down his throat before being summoned back from the depths of hell. He leans through his mane of hair, into the mic and says “Fuck it’s great to be back. This song is about losing your fucking mind” as they rip into ‘Anemoia’. The mood purveyed by Issa is so drenched in despair that it’s like sitting in an underground dungeon waiting for some poor sod to be sacrificed to the dark lord. I’m not entirely sure that a few of the punters in the crowd aren’t vampires and I’m sorta waiting for the fire sprinklers to start dropping blood on our heads like the rave in Blade 2. It’s creepy as a hug from a priest and while no one on hand is smiling, everyone here is happy in their own deranged way. They close out their set with a 10 minute song called ‘Trench Mouth’ about the prevalence of shit talking as some chick from the crowd yells out “I hate you c*nt”. She’s a keeper.
Time for a breather and Sam, vocalist from Lo! is slinging merch at the table. Amongst all the goodies on offer he’s got the last two copies ever of their 2016 EP The Tongueless on vinyl and I grab them both with a shirt. The merch on show is impressive and as this is the last show on this tour, we’re lucky there’s anything left to buy.
Melbourne mob Black Lava hit the stage and the tempo goes up a few million notches. As always the single tallest bloke in the country is standing up front at the barricade so that anyone stuck behind him is going to struggle to suss out proceedings. The mob on hand is enjoying the show but a Sydney crowd is often not the most active spectator group on offer. There’s a few crossed arms and heads-a-nodding and while a few legends throw themselves about, the larger contingency of the crowd seem content to simply swatch. Black Lava give it everything nonetheless. Drummer Dan Pressland is going full berserker and bass player Tim Anderson is a blur. These two alone are worth fighting the outside cold to watch. Vocalist Rob Watkins is strutting the stage like he’s looking for a fight and guitarist Ben Boyle armed with his reverse headstock Jackson is so good he makes it look easy. The music is drenched in evil, but not as evil as the bloke in the crowd that looks like Patrick Batemen from American Psycho who is grinning like he’s wearing a raincoat and listening to Huey Lewis and the News. Right on cue, some bloke in the crowd begins yelling like he’s being murdered as the lads rip into ‘Nightshade’. A few “oy” chants start coming from the crowd like this is an AC/DC show and there might be a bit of life in this crowd yet.
Walk out to the bar and there are still more bodies rolling in the front door. They may have missed the two supports and some of them might have frostbite from being out in this filthy weather but none of them were missing tonight's headliner. Can’t blame them really. At work, Lo!’s 2017 album Vestigial has long been a shop favourite at Higher Ground Tattoos and Records and when new album The Gleaners was unleashed upon the world a couple months back, it may have done a few laps on the turntable. So when tonight's show was announced, we weren’t missing it for all the smashed avo in Melbourne.
Bodies rush inside as the first riffs of Gleaners album opener ‘Our Fouling Larder’ comes blasting from the stage. Vocalist Sam Dillon’s charges through the flashing blue and red stage lights, eyes bulging, to a sea of grinning punters. Lo! have been playing annually (2020 doesn’t count) in Sydney for years but it’s been a while since we’ve been treated to a new albums worth of music by these legends. They play new bangers ‘Salting the Earth’ and ‘Deafening Bleats of Apathy’ and they hit like old favourites. But then they launch into ‘As Fools Ripen’ from Vestigial and the pit opens up. This music is high octane brutality that could easily be the soundtrack to the apocalypse and the delivery tonight is inch perfect. At one point Chapo from Mountain Wizard Death Cult grabs me and says “Adrian f*cking nailed that!!!”. Which one? Adrian Griffin was locked in all night, absolutely destroying on drums, while Adrian Shapiro put on a genuinely impressive display covering every damned inch of his bass guitar. Whichever one Chapo was banging on about, the all Adrian rhythm section was tight as a fishes arse, putting on a masterclass in heavy metal.
Sam says ‘Glutton’ is one of the bands favourite songs to play and it gets a huge response from the crowd. At this point I’m camped out in front of guitarist Carl Whitbread and while he doesn’t move much, he is brilliant to watch live. I see a few guitarists in the crowd mouth a few gentle profanities to themselves as they watch him play. After plowing through ‘Orca’, the lads hit the home stretch with ‘Cannibal Culture', ‘Rat King’, title track ‘The Gleaners’ and the whole time frontman Sam Dillon is a tornado. Without a hint of GST I think it’s fair to say that Sam is one of the most engaging and exciting frontmen that this country has to offer. His onstage persona is wild, his bulging eyes draw you in and his voice gives you chills. An incredible performer and a force on stage.
All in all a brilliant night. The theatrics and musicality of all three bands were top notch, but Lo! are headliners for a reason. They stole the show as expected and showcased their new album The Gleaners perfectly. Will definitely keep an eye out to see them again.
Review by Duane James @duanejames666
