The HU - Gig Review & Photo Gallery 7th August @ The Roundhouse, Syd NSW
The HU
The Roundhouse, Sydney NSW
August 7th, 2022
Support: Blackwater Fever
“SYDNEY IS OUR SECOND HOME!!!”
-Gala from The Hu, mid show, in English and loud as duck.
I’ve never seen a bad show at The Roundhouse. I remember when Lamb Of God and Meshuggah co-headlined here. Michael Starr from Steel Panther showed up in sequins for no reason, took the mic off of Randy, heckled every punter within a downward glance and turned the place on its head in fits of laughter. I looked up into the rafters and there’s the rest of the SP lads, sans wigs and having a blast. The show was epic, one for the ages.
Tonight, me and my boomer best mate are up at said rafters like the two old hecklers from the Muppet Show. The place is charged and there are a few Mongolian faces in the crowd to soak in a piece of the homeland and every one of them looks a million bucks. The people on show are a varied bunch. There are the kids with the wild hair and the old blokes that wish it still grew. Motörhead shirts, Tye died tops, tik tok wankers and battle jackets for days. Everyone here has been itching for tonight and it’s already shaping up to be a hum-dinger.
The Roundhouse is jam packed before a single note is played and if one of these gronks has Covid, then this bad boy will end up as a superspreader. The irony of this situation is not lost on the fact it was Covid that kept The Hu quarantined in Sydney for 45 days just over two years ago when Australia’s first outbreak hit back in March 2020. It all happened only days before they were due to kick everyone's arse at the Aussie leg of the Download Festival. Every person here has waited this entire time to see the Mongolian 8-piece and the atmosphere is electric.
To kickstart proceedings, The Blackwater Fever get on stage and the multitude of punters on the dance floor belt out a Ric Flair “WOOOOOOOOO!!!! Singer Shane Hicks tells the sold out crowd that we’re all gorgeous and let’s face it, he’s right. A minute of white noise later, this Brisbane 3-way turn the volume up to a Spinal Tap 11 and get the place moving. They remind me of Lincoln Durham (look him up ffs) if he dragged a full band out to Australia and turned the volume up to a million. Their music ranges from Darryl Kerrigan saying “how’s the serenity” to a dirty low end that sounds like it was dragged from a swamp, polished with whiskey and drowned in moonshine. It sounds way more like deep south than sunny Brisbane. The crowd digs it (with good reason) and it could easily be played alongside the likes of Clutch, The Teskey Brothers or Chris Stapleton. It’s also the sort of music you could open or close out an underbelly episode with, or a drug movie starring Johnny Depp.
The stage is cleared, the temple bell is erected mid-stage and the “Hu” chants start. This Sydney crowd doesn’t give a toss that they have to work tomorrow. One veteran of the scene says that this is the loudest he’s seen a Sydney crowd for a LONG time.
The moment we’d waited 29 months for is here as The Hu emerges and rips into the very welcoming and beautifully loud ‘Shihi Hutu’. Camera phones are held high to capture this momentous occasion and a few of them go flying once the lads rip into ‘Shoog Shoog’. Every fist is raised high, and some legends even try singing along despite not knowing a lick of Mongolian. The wait has been well worth it for everyone in attendance. This is a serene and powerful moment for both the band and the crowd.
The between-song banter is brilliant. Do I know what they’re saying? F*ck no. Not a lick. On occasion, the legends throw out a “We missed you” and “Are you having fun?” in the local vernacular but other than that it's a sea of Mongolian and the rabble on the dance floor are eating it up.
As for the music, it's a mix of the old and the soon-to-be new. With a new album on the horizon, The Hu are performing some crowd favourites while throwing in some tunes that this lot haven’t heard before. In amongst ‘The Gereg’, ‘Shrieg Shrieg’, ‘Wolf Totem’ and ‘The Great Chinggis Khaan’ (where the whole crowd singing along was akin to a holy moment) were new bangers ‘Huhchu Zairan’, ‘The Triangle’, ‘Bii Biyelgee’, ’Tatar Warrior’, ‘Black Thunder’ and ‘This Is Mongol’ (where Gala’s voice at the end gives me goosebumps). Hands down though, the hugest roar of the night goes to ‘Yuve Yuve Yu’. Mongolian flags are hoisted high in the crowd as vocalist Jaya plays air guitar on his Tsurr flute. But it’s the throat singing, especially when done collectively, well that just resonates with your soul. One encore of Metallica’s ‘Sad But True’ later and the packed crowd refuses to leave. The band and its audience spend enough time basking in each other's existence that there could have been another couple of songs performed in that time. There’s a lot of mutual admiration going on and as The Roundhouse is slowly vacated, the crowd can only hope that the Mongolian 8-piece returns to their second home again sooner rather than later. Absolutely brilliant.
Gig Review by Duane James @duanejames666
Setlist
Shihi Hutu
Shoog Shoog
The Gereg
Huhchu Zairan
The Great Chinggis Khaan
The Triangle
Shrieg Shrieg
Bii Biyelgee
Tatar Warrior
Yuve Yuve Yu
Wolf Totem
Black Thunder
This Is Mongol
Encore
Sad But True
Photo Gallery by Mick Goddard. Insta: @mickg_photography
Please credit Wall of Sound and Mick Goddard if you repost.
Blackwater Fever
The HU
