Noisey Mountain II @ The Residence
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20.11.2013

Noisey Mountain II @ The Residence

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Oh crud, Monday. Monday, Monday, Monday. What was all that about? Truly terrible. And we have four more of these until the weekend? Unacceptable. We’re going to need something to pull focus away from the looming week – how about a rock’n’roll party? 

Brisbane’s Blank Realm are not the most technically proficient band you’ll ever see, but they do know how to have a good time. Their sound? Falling somewhere between New Zealand jangle and American New Wave…The Cars and The Bats. Batcar! Blank Realm are both loose and tightly wound simultaneously, resulting in an unpredictable and energizing set that could go down the pathway choppy guitars or a dancey middle eight without warning.  And let’s not forget Dan Spencer doubling on drums and vocal duties – known in the industry as ‘Don Henley-ing it’.

By the third or fourth time that Johann Rashid, the man in charge of keyboards and shouting into a microphone, bounds up on top of the walls of speakers, you sense that this Home Travel spot is more performance art set to music than a set. Ignorance be damned, I’m going to say that it’s weird viewing some lanky kid awkwardly dancing through the crowd accompanied by giant electro drum beats and droning bass lines. Entertaining and in line with the oh-so-hip crowd, but weird nonetheless.

But if Home Travel required a semiotics and media studies degree to understand, you could scrape through with a primary school education for The UV Race. There’s not too much to get here – a wall of guitars and vocals snarling at each other and the audience in a bid to place first in the ‘I’m the loudest!’ competition. Importantly though, it’s like a B-12 shot for the crowd that inch closer to the meaty punk chords until it’s right on top of them. And a saxophone is prominent throughout, which I’m hoping is a respectful nod to The Stooges but could just as much be in tribute to Men At Work.


Before Noisey Mountain II casts you out into the cold, bleak Monday-ness of the world, how about some slugs of slacker power pop courtesy of Mikal Cronin and his longhaired friends? Cronin and his extras from the casting couch of Dazed & Confused don’t play live as polished and glistening as the recorded product – too many uneven sound mixes and drowned out guitar lines for that – but the foundation is strong and holds throughout. Noisey Mountain II is not the packed-to-the-gills, had-to-be-there event that Noisey Mountain I was, but there was a little dancing dude and plenty of good music.  

BY MITCHELL ALEXANDER
 

Loved: The ‘let’s learn it on stage’ minimalism of The UV Race.   

Hated: The dirt and dust of the venue doing a number on my sneakers.

Drank: Sapporo.