The stately manner of the Tom Lyngcoln, Matt Weston and Dan McKay was on show as the Nation Blue trio greeted old friends and fans over on the quieter side of the room. This was a celebration of the band’s dual album releases Black & Blue but also their first Melbourne show in a long time as work and family responsibilities make it hard for these three men to tour.
Opening the night was sludge/punk outfit Batpiss, who played mostly new songs, which were considerably more doomy than their earlier work.
Next up was slacker punk rock four-piece Miss Destiny who managed to capture the attention of the near full room, which was quite a feat considering it was a who’s-who of the Melbourne’s finest and longest standing rock guard.
Directly proceeding The Nation Blue was comedian Aaron Gocswho’s self-effacing and deeply sardonic humour was a perfect match for the similarly glum themes of The Nation Blue’s Black album.
The floor was in total darkness with just a soft blue light bathing the drum kit and the back of the stage. As McKay was doing his final drum checks and Weston casually held his primed bass, Lyngcoln began singing the a cappella intro to Black’s opening song I Have No Representatives where he charts the fall of a satellite as it ditches over a doomed region in the Southern Hemisphere know as Australasia. From here they rolled straight into song two from that album, Australian Of The Year – during the performance of this crushing 90 seconds of music Lyngcoln did his somewhat unorthodox ‘signature move’ of flipping his guitar around then bashing and wiping the guitar neck on his forehead until it bled.
It was a frenetic 50 minutes of music that included only a few throwbacks to previous album with I See Colours from 2009’s Rising Waters the furthest back they reached. However, this makes sense considering they had two albums to launch. The songs from Black were the most accessible in a live setting, however Blue is sure to sink far deeper into the dark recesses of listener’s minds with its complex and intended inaccessibility.
Words by Dan Watt
Image by Zo Damage
Highlight: “Manmade lakes, our mistakes.”
Lowlight: It was maybe a bit too dark (as in a lack of lighting).
Crowd Favourite: I See Colours.
