Unwound gave us a show that really was post-everything. Post-rock, post-punk, post-hardcore; think big guitars, pounding drums and dissonant harmonies that crunch like bone. Post-show? I have to say, I was pretty happy.
Noise-rock royalty and Olympia, Washington natives Unwound played their very first show on Australian soil last Friday, to an unprecedented response. This is a band that’s clearly been hard at work for the past two years, having disbanded way back in 2002, much to the dismay of the greater music scene.
Still, you hear echoes of some of their most boundary-pushing work all over the modern music soundscape, and it’s this mutual appreciation that has cemented them as a cult classic. Safe to say, they’re back for good this time, and boy do they sound as good as they ever did, in all their noisy, post-ironic glory.
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I will admit this is hardly an unbiased review, but with Unwound, it’s really hard not to be. This was a band that was relegated to the sidelines by the mainstream, banished to the darkest edges of the underground, playing in dingy basements and abandoned lots to thousands of hungry fans of all ages, the epitome of the DIY scene in Olympia.
Though the band room at the Corner may not be situated in a dormitory basement, the band more than made do, and with local favourites and Sydney-siders Budd and A Broken Sail on supports, we were in for a real treat.
I thought I knew what to expect, having been quite the fan of their work for as long as I can remember, and like a lot of the musicians that followed them, has been hugely influential on my own work. Truly, nothing could have prepared me for what we got that night.
On crowd-warming duties first was Budd, a spunky little grunge outfit that really knew how to throw down. Tasting notes? Melvin’s on the nose, a sharp tinge of Incubus, and maybe a couple of sludgy esters to round out the whole affair.
Balls to the wall, unabashed riff rock. Think huge tones and even huger riffs. With bassist and guitarist sporting matching Hi-Flyers, we were very firmly into the realm of the 90s by now.
When I thought we were sticking with the RE-201 perched on top of an amp and a super fuzz on everyone’s pedalboards, the guitarist pulled out a Squier bass VI halfway through and melted the crowd’s faces with a wall of fuzz. Sounds like stuff you’d cook up in a garage with some mates when you were 16, just like how Kurt would have wanted. Yeooowch!
Up next was yet another strategic choice, supplementing grungy flavours with the hauntingly gorgeous post-rock trio A Broken Sail. Having bumped shoulders with some of the finest in the genre, these guys had the audience floating centimetres off the ground, guiding us through devastating sonic pastures and reverent melodies with infinity on the horizon.
Ghostly may be the correct word to describe this band as they move through songs that seemed to conjure up images of something larger than the self. Though they claim their sail may be broken, this band had no problem driving the crowd with their heavier numbers, with walls of feedback being more than enough to propel the show forward.
Then came Unwound.
Opening with the abrasive and energetic Message Received, Unwound sent the crowd into a heaving mosh from the very get-go, bringing us along on their very own kind of rollercoaster.
Big, clean guitars, with that characteristic chunk carrying the band through dissonant riff after dissonant riff, the band expertly navigated big open sections before leaning into the expanses of sonic freakouts, pushing the audiences to the very edges of experience through musical whiplash.
Devastating stuff, the sounds of buildings crashing in on themselves. If I could liken it to anything else, it’s like dropping acid and sitting under a busy overpass with your eyes closed, but for your ears only, an all-encompassing sonic annihilation.
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