You might think you’ve seen some crazy things at Cherry Bar, but if you missed seeing Jack The Stripper on Saturday night, then sorry – you ain’t seen squat. Melbourne post rock trio Anember hit the stage first, but it was JTS that smoked it like a cigar. The clue to the ensuing carnage was in the size of the stage: the burly lads in the extreme metal outfit were never going to fit up there, so naturally they spilled into the crowd like bloodthirsty wolves after sheep. Guitar headstocks were flung and beer spilled as punters – including an enormous bloke dressed as a wizard – hurled themselves into one another. “I’m seeing a lot of rocking but not a whole lot of rolling,” quipped vocalist Luke Frizon between songs as he beckoned the bar flies to hover closer to the stage. Nibiru and Grinning Death crushed. Sweaty, manic and unpredictable, JTS slay live.
Headliners Alithia don’t put on a show – they provide an experience. Joint audience meditation coexisted with Cherry’s usual rock’n’roll antics as astral projections lit up the stage. Having honed their craft by touring the globe, the Melbourne quintet summoned monolithic slabs of prog rock, psychedelia, and world music, which were effortlessly mixed together like watercolours. Percussionist Jeffrey Ortiz Raul Castro’s tribal rhythms locked onto guitarist John Rousvanis’ searing lead. Reverb, delay and wah pedals were stomped mercilessly as the soaring dual vocals of Rousvanis and keyboardist Danny Constantino shone throughout. In an outdoor setting, it would be powerful – inside Cherry the effect was amplified tenfold.
While choice cuts from Alithia’s debut album, To the Edge of Time, were highlighted throughout the set, it was set closer Sacrifice that elicited the strongest reaction from the band and their “street dog” fans. The near ten-minute track shifts from towering crescendos to gentle piano interludes and it showed Alithia at their most fluid and experimental; shattering the confines of rock and rearranging the pieces into their own sonic mural.
Alithia are doing things their own way – or the “street dog” way as they like to refer to it – and going by the howls from the crowd as they wrapped up tonight, their pack is only going to keep growing in numbers.
LOVED: Trippy music with trippy visuals
HATED: Almost copping a guitar to the face
DRANK: Anything that wasn’t knocked out of my hand
BY JACK PILVEN
