Orange Goblin - Gig Review 12th April @ Crowbar, Sydney NSW

Orange Goblin
Crowbar, Sydney NSW
April 12th, 2024
Supports: Dr. Colossus, Astrodeath

With a lineup as stacked as this, it’s no surprised that Sydney’s Crowbar is firmly packed this Friday evening. It’s been well over a decade since Orange Goblin have graced our shores and to bring local legends Dr. Colossus and Astrodeath along for the ride means this was one I wasn’t going to miss.

Before a note has been played, there’s an air of excitement amongst the rabble as a veritable who’s who of Sydney’s underground is on show to bear witness to what promises to be an epic affair. With members of Mountain Wizard Death Cult, Flaming Wrekage, Iron Blanket, Robot God and Black Rheno (who are fresh off of their support slot at Pantera’s Adelaide show) in attendance, this is clearly a night that is not to be missed.

Astrodeath kickstart proceedings earlier than announced and this Sydney outfit get better and better every time I see them. Straight off the bat Yoshi and Tim deliver a rousing, heavy and engaging performance with instant classics like ‘Humanoid Slave’, ‘Leviathan Rising’ and ‘Ceremonial Blood’. The usual invitation for the crowd to join them onstage during the cover of ‘Children Of The Grave’ by Black Sabbath goes missing tonight, and given the amount of gear onstage it’s probably for the best. The place is already buzzing and everyone smart enough to get here early (there’s a lot of them) have only done themselves a favour by rocking up and witnessing them destroy tonight. They loosen up pretty quickly, get this room moving, and by the time they finish with ‘Relentless Beauty’ the place is chockers full of thrilled punters. No one wants this to end. Go on after them at your own peril.

Between sets the line at the bar is ten deep and so is the merch table. For a crowd that’s meant to be a miserable doom-clad bunch of collected misery, there’s a lot of smiles on faces. The Sydney lads don’t need to make the hard sell. Everyone wants a piece of Astrodeath tonight.

Dr. Colossus hit the stage decked out in their Stonecutters garb and kept the good times rolling. These Simpsons-themed doom traders don’t quite match the energy previously displayed tonight, but their tongue-in-cheek approach to doom definitely suits the sense of humour of the horde assembled before them. With introductory tracks featuring the likes of Ned Flanders and Grandpa Simpson setting the scene, these four blokes from Melbourne get a huge response from this energetic crowd. With earworm belters like ‘Pickabar’, ‘Sixty-Six and Six’ and ‘Lard Lad’ offering the chance for the crowd to sing some of the catchiest hooks of the night, the party atmosphere goes up a notch and Dr. Colossus walk away triumphant.

Orange Goblin turn everything up and charge the stage to a packed room. “HOW YA FEELIN? IT’S GOOD TO BE BACK. WE ARE ORANGE FUCKING GOBLIN BABYYYYYYY” screams vocalist Ben Ward as the four stoner legends from the UK rip into ‘Solarisphere’ to a cheering Sydney crowd. Straight away it’s heavy, groovy and loud as hell. Lemmy would be proud. The lads kick into ‘The Filthy & the Few’ then ‘Saruman's Wish’ and Ben says the latter is older than the fans in the front row. ‘Made of Rats’ follows and Ben says it's their third time to Sydney, which essentially means this place is their second home. But for new bass player Harry Armstrong, it’s his first time to Australia and I think it's fair to say we’ve warmed to the bloke. He goes hard and is no slouch when it comes to dominating that bass guitar.

‘Aquatic Fanatic’, ‘The Man Who Invented Time’ and the rocking ‘Sons of Salem’ follow and even if you’d never heard these blokes before it’d still be abundantly obvious that Orange Goblin are huge fans of Black Sabbath and Motörhead. With that in mind, I’d almost dare James Hetfield, an enormous fan of the aforementioned icons of heavy metal, to give this mob a support slot the next time Metallica hit the UK. Orange Goblin continue on with ‘Your World Will Hate This’ and ‘Some You Win, Some You Lose’ before introducing some new music in the form of ‘(Not) Rocket Science’ off of their forthcoming album Science, Not Fiction due out in July. It’s got a solid AC/DC styled bass line that would be a great soundtrack to fanging it down an apocalyptic desert highway at top speed. Ben lets us know that as far as crowds go, we’ve got Brisbane beat, and while that reeks of beaut rock ‘n roll banter, I love it anyways.

Ben starts walking around like a zombie, theatrically eating the brains of guitarist Joe Hoare as they tear into ‘They Come Back (Harvest of Skulls)’. Drummer Chris Turner manages to crack a smile while Joe gives his guitar hell as a large section of the crowd scream “Back to take the living” at high volume. Looking around though, a couple of people are starting to yawn, but Orange Goblin are having an absolute blast as they play ‘The Devil’s Whip’. Ben looks like a mad grinning puppeteer trying to control a room full of convicts and most of them dig it, but when they play the slower ‘Time Travelling Blues’ I can see the wind get taken out of a few people’s sails.

They close out the night with the mighty ‘Scorpionica’, ‘Quincy the Pigboy’ and
‘Red Tide Rising’ which sees Joe break a string like he’d been flogging it all night. The roadie grabs another guitar but by now it’s too late. Joe shrugs, shifts the string to the side and finishes the song with what’s left. The sound has been so fuzzed out and heavy that by this stage no one notices anyways, and it might be fair to assume that everyone’s hearing is cactus after being audibly assaulted all night.

For me, this was a killer night. Everyone on show delivered from go to whoa and the performances served the Friday night party atmosphere beautifully. The crowd showed up pumped, got stuck in early and raided the merch table on the way out. Work is gunna sting tomorrow. Absolutely worth it.

Words by Duane James @duanejames666

Orange Goblin setlist:

Aquatic Fanatic
The Man Who Invented Time
Sons of Salem
Your World Will Hate This
Some You Win, Some You Lose
(Not) Rocket Science
They Come Back (Harvest of Skulls)
The Devil’s Whip
Time Travelling Blues
Scorpionica
Quincy the Pigboy
Red Tide Rising

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