Broozer + TTTDC + Hotel Wrecking City Traders
Bendigo Hotel, Melbourne
12 September 2015
Review by Salla Harjula
This early spring night in Melbourne is balmy warm and kinda mellow. So naturally the rocker city puts up an attitude and offers in your face metal shows in nearly every likely bar. In Fitzroy alone there’s grindcore, tech metal and stoner sludge in three different venues. We checked out sludge tech outfit Broozer on their big vinyl launch night at the Bendi.
I walk in as Hotel Wrecking City Traders are starting up. It’s just two guys on stage, there’s a guitar and a drum kit, no mics for a singer, and off they go. Super low maintenance, dirty psychedelic rock is their thing. For me the endless repeat/variation/repeat cycle with everlasting jams gets, frankly, boring, but the crowd seems to enjoy it.
It’s not a big crowd. Maybe because the neighbourhood is definitely spoiled for choice in metal line- ups this Saturday. But it’s a pretty happily beer chugging crowd who are obviously pleased with their pick of a venue, when TTTDC fires off in the general stonery theme of tonight.
With TTTDC, there’s an energy that wasn’t in the air earlier. It’s still psychedelic as hell, but in a more intense, heavier, groovier way. The whole band contributes to the singing department, which makes for a fun quirk when even the drummer goes for it and does lead vocals on some songs. It’s an entertaining and grimy package of stoner metal.
It’s Broozer’s party though and they bring it. So sludge tech is not necessarily a word combo you see thrown together often, but it fits this band totally. It’s smutty and gunky as anything, just as stoner drony as any band we’ve seen tonight, but it’s mixed with unexpected timing tricks and abrupt riffs.
It’s always a happy surprise when you find your local musos in your local bar doing something unique that actually works, too. Broozer are vulgar in tone and sophisticated in structure at the same time. It’s pretty damn fascinating and badass.
The crowd rocks out to the gritty tunes with abandon and after it’s all over, quite a few walk out with the new vinyl ‘II’ or a T-shirt under their arm. You could call that a success.
