Mammal – Gig Review 22nd December @ Evelyn Hotel, Melbourne (Naarm), Vic

Mammal
Evelyn Hotel, Melbourne (Naarm), Vic
December 23, 2023
Support: Mojo Pin, Captives

Arriving at the venue this night, a couple of people ahead of me are (unfortunately for them) being turned away at the door, as this show is sold out. It’s always fantastic to hear these two magical words related to a local show.

It should come as no surprise though – rewind 15 or so years, and you’ll find that the mighty Mammal were arguably the fastest-rising rock act in the nation, and many of those fans are still around, just older (yours truly included.) It’s just such a shame that the issues that affect so many promising bands reared their ugly heads in the Mammal camp at that point, and split them asunder.

It’s fantastic to have them back now, however.

It is a streamlined but varied and highly enjoyable support card tonight – openers Mojo Pin are a local four-piece act with a bluesy psychedelic rock sound. Not exactly stoner rock, but not a bazillion miles from stoner rock either. The main thing that sets them apart from the stoner sound is the lead vocals, they are a little higher in pitch than that of most stoner rock vocalists. The lead singer’s voice kinda reminds me of the singer of a Sydney band who were working the traps and doing quite well three or four years ago, before seemingly dropping off the face of the planet, a band called Glass Ocean. Similar voices in very different musical settings.

Mojo Pin’s sound is underpinned by fat, straight-ahead, four-on-the-floor grooves, fuzzy guitars and a bass sound that is large and strong, however never overwhelming, and their set tonight is low-key (especially by comparison to the headliners, and indeed the middle act) but heaps of fun. They manage to inject some dynamics into the sound as well, interspersing the up-tempo tunes with songs that are more moody, feature more languid grooves and touch on Floydian-style dreaminess.

Mojo Pin provide a relatively breezy way to ease in to tonight’s arse-kicking entertainment.

And kick our collective arses the next band most definitely does. Melbourne punk/rock act Captives smash out a very Aussie brand of punk (as opposed to the very British ‘Oi Oi!’ style of punk, hardcore, ska punk or any other subdivision of the style), and they do so with about as much rough-hewn panache as is possible to do so in this genre.  

At the same time, most of the trappings of punk rock are here in their droves – the blistering energy, the driving grooves, the short, sharp, in-your-face songs, the big, rousing choruses, the angry, raucous delivery – and this band is going to appeal to just about anyone who likes just about any sub-genre of punk. This band’s raw power gets many a head bobbing and foot tapping amongst the ever-growing crowd, and by the time their 40 minutes of allocated time is up, the heaving horde of Evelyn punters is more than ready for some Mammal mayhem.

And deliver the mayhem they most certainly do.

Mammal are a band with whom you must expect the unexpected, and tonight is no exception. I’m not sure what I was expecting them to open their show with tonight, but it sure as hell wasn’t a musical cover of Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’ with frontman Ezekiel Ox belting out the words to Christmas song ‘Deck the Halls’ over the top. It works a treat, both rhythmically and as the opening to a holiday-season heavy rock show.

From here they treat we in the sold-out crowd to a barnstorming one hour and 20 minute set of Mammal-music, which incorporates bludgeoning hard rock, punk, funk, blues, rap and more, all wrapped up in a live package that is often spontaneous, features a whole swathe of crowd-pleasing tunes (including no fewer than three spanking brand spankers from their forthcoming new album) and never, ever not entertaining.

The entertainment element certainly centres around Ox, who remains as utterly extroverted and completely over the top as a frontman as ever. He spends long moments in the thick of the crowd, on top of tables and on the bar, ripping it up and singing his lungs up while the crowd stand in awe. However, the three other band members are every bit as good at what they do, laying down a monstrous foundation over which the Ox can manifest his frontman-oriented histrionics.

As an overall package, it is unstoppable and undeniable.

Even relatively new bassist Kade Turner’s bright yellow pineapple Hawaiian shirt is fabulous, and causes quite the stir amongst band and crowd alike. In all my decades of attending rock shows, I’ve never heard a crowd chanting ‘pine-app-le! pine-app-le!’ before, let alone multiple times! Just more of the aforementioned unexpected you must expect at a Mammal show.

Mammal’s live show is every imaginable iota as blistering and scintillating as it was in 2008, which is no mean feat. One can only wonder what might have been had this band stuck it out in 2009, carried on with their career and continued to ride the uncontrollable wave of momentum they enjoyed at that time. They’d probably have four or five studio albums under their belt, countless national and international tours, and be one of the bigger rock acts on the planet, by now.

No sense crying too much over spilt pineapple however - as stated, let’s just be grateful that they’ve patched up their differences and returned to the scene now.

Happy holidays everyone!

Review by Rod Whitfield