Mammal – Gig Review & Photo Gallery 19th July @ Max Watts, Melb/Naarm, Vic
MammalMax Watts, Melbourne/Naarm, VicJuly 19th, 2024Support: Shotgun Mistress, Fresh Violet, TerrestrialsI love live bills that feature a broad variety of acts. Bills where each band/artist doesn’t fit into a neat box, bills during which the sound takes a sharp turn to the left or right as each new artist takes the stage.And that’s what we have tonight, on this cold, windy, wintry, unpleasant mid-winter evening in Melbourne.In fact, tonight is a rather extreme example of an eclectic bill. First up, it’s Melbourne-based band Terrestrials, smashing out the type of heavy alternative rock that Australia has had mastered for years. This band has been around for quite some time, and it shows: they are tight, the sound is powerful, and the band members strike that sweet balance between putting in hard, while still making it look effortless.With only 30 minutes to play with, Terrestrials take the ball in both hands and run with it, raising the bar further and further over the course of the set, getting kinda proggy at the midway point and smashing the ball out of the park at the finale (Okay, enough with the sporting analogies already!) In all seriousness, this band is a melodic powerhouse, very easy on the ear (for heavy rock) and dead on the money in a live setting. It’s only 7:30-8:00pm, it’s frigid outside, but the crowd is slowly but surely building and things are warming up nicely inside.As stated, the night takes a neck-snapping turn to the left, stylistically, as the second act takes the stage. Melbourne rapper Fresh Violet has been a collaborator and support for Mammal for a little while now, and that story writes a new page for itself tonight.I can in no way, shape or form claim to be the world’s biggest rap/hip-hop fan, or indeed a fan of that style of music at all. But its place on this bill is a welcome flower, and break for the ears, amidst the roaring guitars, pounding drums and soaring and howling vocals inherent in this lineup. Especially when the presentation is such a joy. Violet is indeed a fresh voice on the scene, her delivery highly authentic and her personality infectious and original. It’s great to see/hear an Aussie accent and attitude doing rap music, and doing so with a cheeky smile and some real spunk.Tonight, it is just the two people onstage (aside from when she brings out a violinist, which sets an unexpected but gorgeous mood to one of her tunes), Violet and her DJ and backing vocalist, and together they swoon out an easy, breezy, fun 30-minute set that even inspires many in the crowd to spontaneously chant Violet’s name.We are now both warm inside and sporting a cheesy ear-to-ear grin.And that grin remains as main support Shotgun Mistress appear, our eyes and ears taking in yet another enjoyably jarring musical and visual shift.Back during the 80s “hair metal” phenomenon, I always said (and continue to say to this day) there were two realms that existed within that movement: the true poser, ‘style over substance’ bands (you know the type, the ones that gave us the ‘Unskinny Bop’, ‘Girls Girls Girls’ and ‘She’s My Cherry Pie’), and the bands that added a little more grit, grunt and realness (and thus substance) to their sound and style (Guns n Roses, Aerosmith, The Cult, WASP etc)Thankfully, while glammy, Shotgun Mistress draw significantly more influence from the latter than the former.Many of the trappings are here: flashpots going off, scarves tied around the mic stand, soaring, operatic high-end vocals (which I adore), but there is no makeup, no teased hair, just a wall of 70s and 80s-inspired hard rock, delivered with exuberance and swagger by extroverted players who are clearly loving what they do. And that enthusiasm flows out into and ignites the crowd.And speaking of getting out into the crowd, that’s exactly where the frontman goes, multiple times throughout the set, and that always makes for a fun time.Shotgun Mistress’s 40-minute set is completely over the top and totally entertaining, and we are now more than ready for more ballsy-arse rock n roll. Although of a very different kind, this being the night that it is . . .I haven’t actually counted it up, but Mammal would at least be amongst the bands I have reviewed the most over the last 15 to 20 years, but I never struggle for words to say about them, because they always give so much. And they give something a little different every time, while remaining more than true to who and what they are.And what they are is essentially the best live band in Australia, and unquestionably one of the best live bands on the planet (it’s just that most of the planet doesn’t know it.) Big calls, I know, but there they are. I know many people who’ve seen them, who agree.This is a band that simply delivers. Every single time.And what they deliver is a blistering, completely over-the-top rock n roll performance. But not ‘over-the-top’ in a glammy, showboaty 80s-style way. More in a grittily bombastic modern way.Obviously a lot of that has to do with the ‘never less than nuclear-strength’ performance of singer Ezekiel Ox. He truly is one of the greatest frontmen ever, in Australia or elsewhere (again, it’s one of Australia’s best-kept global secrets.) But the band behind him locks in so tight, and plays in such a devastating manner, it becomes the complete picture, a whole that more than measures up to the sum of its parts. A monumental frontman does not a kick-arse band maketh, it takes a full and committed team (and that team does, indeed, extend beyond the four people onstage too.) And Mammal provide living, breathing, rocking proof of that.Tonight, their set leans heavily into their new album, ‘The Penny Drop’, and understandably so, since this is their album launch tour. There is also the small matter of it being a rip-roaring album with a whole swathe of tracks that lend themselves beautifully to live performance (including highlight tune ‘Bottom End’, during which Fresh Violet and former Jika percussionist Jeffrey Ortiz Castro jump up for joyous guest spots. We also get fantastic guest appearance from Bushido guitarist and singer Guy Shenfield on ‘Doubt’) But there is still plenty of grist for the old-school mill, including iconic tunes from their pre-hiatus past such as ‘The Majority’, ‘Clear Enough’, ‘Nagasaki in Flames’, ‘Smash the Pinata’ and crowd favourite and night-closer ‘Hell Yeah’.Every single Mammal gig is not just a rock show, it’s an event. And tonight is no exception.So tonight we have had: heavy Aussie alt rock, fun white girl rap, glammy 80s hard rock and pure, funk-laden powerhouse rock n roll. It shouldn’t have worked, but it did, an absolute treat, and we’re all walking on air back out into the freezing, windswept Melbourne night.Review by Rod WhitfieldPhoto Gallery by Clinton Hatfield. Insta: @ampd.agency.Please credit Wall of Sound and Clinton Hatfield if you repost photos. 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Mammal - The Penny Drop Tour
Aug 2 @ Unibar, Adel
Aug 3 @ Brightside, Bris
