Everything about my experience at Fifth Floor II was surreal, or more accurately ultra ‘real’ bordering on visceral. When we arrived, the rain was torrential resulting in a clog of smokers at the venue’s entrance. Once inside, the atmosphere of the night was almost tangible. Promoter Vlad Chant’s vision for the night is 100 per cent experience focused from the selection of bands to the visuals projected on to the two performance spaces.
Hollow Everdaze owned the main room. Their rich proto-goth, post-punk stylings worked perfectly in this sparse dark environment where the main lighting came from Thomas Russel’s (a.k.a Astral Projection Artwork) projector. Vocalist Daniel Baulch’s rich vocals and expansive music combined with the room did give off the vibe one would have imagined on the original Fifth Floor of Andy Warhol’s warehouse in New York that played host to so many important parties and gigs in the formative days of the punk movement.
The side room offered two main highlights – the first band we saw was Sooky La La, whose Dirty Three with vocals aesthetic was pretty sick. The other that I saw in the side room was Western Australian exports New Pollution – their psych stoner vibe was indulgent, but there was enough song structure to make it a compelling 35 minutes of music.
It was the first time I had seen Wolf & Cub since Wade Keighran and Brock Fitzgerald had joined the band. The two former The Scare members have provided more ‘rock’ and less ‘psych’ in Wolf & Cub. Existing members Joel Carey and frontman Joel Byrne appeared very comfortable with the new focus and, predictably, the songs from their new album Heavy Weight were the most powerfully performed, in particular the driving I Need More that left the audience…err, needing more?
At 1am when the venue called it stumps, the party kept going with the official after party featuring The Good Morrows and Drunk Mums at Alia Arthouse, but that’s another story for another day.
BY DAN WATT
Loved: I Need More.
Hated: The lack of bottom end on the sound system.
Drank: Dexy’s ‘Up All Night To Get Some’ magic potion.
