sleepmakeswaves – Gig Review 26th April @ Max Watts Melb/Naarm, VIC
sleepmakeswaves
Max Watts, Melbourne/Naarm, Vic
April 26th, 2024
Support: Elephant Gym, Meniscus
Winter is coming in Melbourne, you can feel it. But the beauty, majesty and good vibes happening in Max Watts tonight warm the heart and bring a big, cheesy smile to the faces of the 700-odd punters in attendance. Let the (mostly) instrumental mastery commence!
Sydney post-rock three-piece Meniscus haven’t paid us a visit for a while, and they are welcomed back with open arms this night. And why not, they always put on a show that is simultaneously powerful and interesting. Tonight they open with an 11-minute tune (please correct me if I’m wrong, but I count just six songs filling their 40-minute set tonight), and things only get bigger and badder from there.
Like most post-rock instrumental acts, this band knows exactly how and when to build to crescendos and when to pull back to lighter, more textural and atmospheric moments. Their command of ebb and flow, light and shade and musical dynamics is masterful, to the point where the powerful moments blow your hair back (well, people who have hair, anyway) while the ambient parts lull you into a beautiful reverie.
Add to this a tight, crisp sound, syncopated, sometimes jazzy rhythms, a highly energetic stage show and cosmic rear-screens that only add to the spectacle, and you have yourself a pretty damn special opening set. Thank you for coming back, Meniscus! Don’t wait so long next time . . .
From a band who’s come to Melbourne several times, to a band playing on Australian soil for the first time ever, a very warm Aussie welcome to Taiwanese three-piece Elephant Gym!
It’s a little difficult to know where to start with this band (of whom I have to admit I’d never heard of before tonight.) Maybe just a little background before we get into describing their wondrous live set – they have actually been around for more than a decade, have released four full-length albums and two EPs, and by all accounts are legends in their home country. In late 2014, they were forced into a year-long hiatus due to their country’s compulsory military service. Tonight, co-founding member Tell Chang expresses his great relief to be carrying a guitar rather than a rifle (as well as his pride in Taiwan being the first Asian nation to legalise marriage equality.)
It’s fantastic to see them breaking out.
The band’s Wiki page pegs them as ‘math rock’, but I’m not sure that does them any sort of justice at all. Obviously juxtaposing Western influences with their own musical culture, their sound is all over the place, although in the most cohesive and enjoyable manner imaginable. Very bass-driven, Elephant Gym’s music combines the complicated rhythms of jazz and fusion with the power of rock and the breeziness of pop to tremendous effect, the vibe of their stage show remains happy and lively while the members concentrate on the complex task of playing their songs. And the end product is a live set that is simply a joy to behold.
With their set opening in all-instrumental fashion, pint-sized bassist KT Chang suddenly and unexpectedly steps up to the mic three or four songs deep and starts singing, transforming the set. Her bass looks bigger than she is, but she wields it like master swordsperson! And her voice is a delight, as is her personality and stage persona. From here, their set lurches joyously from instrumental pieces to more vocally-orientated tunes, and the near-capacity crowd laps up every note, every moment.
They have come a long way (in terms of getting to Australia and their career), and they are deservedly given a 50-minute set to celebrate, a set that is every bit as fun as it is complex and musical, a set that puts a smile on the face of every woman and man in the place.
Thank you to Elephant Gym for gracing us with your presence, and thank you to the team who managed to get them out here. Please let it be not the first and only time.
Oh yes, there is a fabulous headliner to experience tonight too! And it’s only this humble scribe’s favouritest all-instrumental band on the planet, the mightiest of the mighty, sleepmakeswaves.
And tonight, as always, they veritably explode onto the stage. From the get-go, the sound is enormous, and the energy flowing off the stage from the four of them is like a tsunami of sound and movement. With a brand new album having just been released, this band has been re-energised after the inactivity (in a live sense, they did happen to release no fewer than three EPs during that period) and trauma of the covid years.
The band lean heavily into the new album tonight. And rightly so, It’s Here, But I Have No Names For It is as musical and masterful as anything they’ve done previously. In addition, they have a tantalisingly long set to play around with tonight, winding out almost to the 90-minute mark, so they are able to inject several old favourites into the mix as well.
This band’s ability to craft powerful and transcendent post-rock soundscapes that are also super-catchy, and then translate that into a monumental live set, is unmatched. Added to this, their connection with the audience, via music with very little in the way of vocals and lyrics, and via their onstage personalities and banter, and the sum total of it all is a live show that is a timeless powerhouse, an exuberant celebration of all things post-rocky and instrumentally.
Tonight is a truly triumphant return for this illustrious Sydney act.
Fantastic night, much kudos and congratulations to everyone involved, bands, bookers and promoters, venue, merch people, and stage and sound techs. And anyone else I’ve forgotten.
I want to see all three of these bands again soon . . .
Review by Rod Whitfield
