Words by Jimmy Glinster
Pix by Kaotic Images
Another gig in Brisbane brings upon another journey up the dreaded M1, but this time around I decided to go full city style and jump on a train for a ride up through the boarded-up houses of Logan and South Brisbane’s outer suburbs. Not sure what’s going on there, but it reminded me of a Spanian You Tube episode. Luckily the express train from the Gold Coast bypassed some shady looking stations and their unsavoury looking characters, and got me pretty quickly up to Central Station amongst the Inner City Brisbane’s unsavoury characters.
Speaking of shady and unsavoury characters, I arrive to the Air BnB to a bunch of HEAVY hoodies and some Screaming Jets tunes, which I soon switched over to a 90’s & 2000’s metal and rock You Tube playlist. That didn’t last long though as the tunes eventually got switched over to some Mammal to get us pumped for the show. Yeah, that’s right, but not before we all downloaded the Beam scooter app so that we could ride over to the show like some kind of outlaw scooter cycle gang. That was until everyone piked and jumped in a Maxi cab except for Krispy (HEAVY), Phil (Engraved) and I who kept in the City spirit and scooted our way over to Fortitude Valley, and into The Brightside.
We run into Zeke, the frontman from Mammal out in the crowd early on, mingling and showing some love to his fans. He didn’t talk to me though, cause like everyone else he had a pretty good Facebook war with me back in my social media glory days. But let’s not get caught up in the past, because that’s a whole other story amongst those crazy spicy cough, BLM, Q-Anon, MAGA times that divided us all a few years ago.
So, let’s focus on the now, and the now is The Lonesomes. What do I know about The Lonesomes? Fuck all, because like every other band, they have absolutely zero information about them on their socials. From what I can figure out, they are somewhat local to Brisbane or at least South-East Qld. After a few distractions out front of the venue, and a short wait at the door, I got in maybe halfway through their set to be welcomed by some weird psychedelic progressive rock vibe which eventually picked up to rock out at the end of the song.
It’s a full house already which is great to see with a band on so early at 7:30pm. The next track, a new one which I didn’t quite catch the name of, was a bit more of a rocker. They kind of have a QOTSA type vibe going on, or at least that’s all I can think of because this is not a genre style that I’m overly familiar with.
Ok, so maybe I was a little later than halfway because the next one was their last song. It started with a nice rolling baseline and a thumping drum beat. The music is super catchy, and the vocal style is almost spoken word, but with a nice flowing rhythm that sits in well with the rolling groove. The song did get a bit repetitive at the end with a repeated catchphrase of “get in the car”, but they do rock it back up and then doom it back down. It was entertaining, I’ll give it that. And with the roar and applause of the crowd, I think they all enjoyed it too.
In between sets, I have some random chats with some GC locals out in the courtyard, and again catch Zeke chatting with fans, getting some photos and even doing a couple of vids for some friends of fans who couldn’t make it to the show. And that, my budding musician friends, is how you make and keep super fans. So, take note, and don’t be those too cool-for-school guys hiding in the band room.
I hear some noise start stirring from outside, so I quickly head inside to catch Hammers opening up their set. It’s always a good time with this band, and the crowd are already moving along to their rocking tunes. One thing about this place is that it’s very fucking difficult to see the stage, but I don’t need to, cause the riffs keep coming hard and fast, and Fish’s vocals push through the many bobbing heads in the crowd to reach me at the back of the room.
It’s a rocking good time, that’s for sure, and the crowd shows their appreciation after every track. I hang out in the crowd listening to the band deliver banger after banger of heavy rocking good times, and it drags me in so much, that it’s all of sudden time for their last track. It fucking delivered, and the crowd loved being Hammered one last time. And now, it’s time for me to get a bit hammered in preparation for a belt down by a big ass fucking Mammal.
What I meant was I’ll drink responsibly and regularly consume water to control my intoxication levels, and I might even try to get something to eat from the food van outside. That doesn’t happen though, and before I know it, I hear some noise kicking off again inside. As I make my way in, Mammal opens with new track Moscow which instantly gains a massive response from the crowd. For Slings & Arrows, Zeke is down on the floor, and he may have been there for Moscow, but I don’t know because I was only just able to make it down there myself through the thick and unruly crowd.
If you’ve ever seen Mammal before, or any of Zeke’s other projects, you’ll know that he doesn’t actually spend that much time onstage with the band, but by the beginning of The Majority he is back up there giving his bandmates some shoutouts during the song. The crowd is fucking loving it and singing along to all the lyrics. There is a short intermission after the track for some carry on about some political stuff, which I took fuck all notice of. Then they played another song, and then stopped again for something about AFL and genocide being shit which I both strongly Agree with. Everybody in the crowd seems to know every fucking word to every fucking song, except me.
The Lonesomes and Hammers both get a shout-out and the crowd show their support with a massive cheer and applause for both the show openers. Some technical issues force Zeke to grab some gaf tape, and gaf that motherfucking mic cable on before they launch into Nagasaki In Flames. The crowd, with Zeke in the middle of it, is moving around so much that it’s getting fucking hot in here, and I’m forced to take off my hoodie. And with all that movement, the mic fix doesn’t last long, and by the end of the song it’s completely fucked, forcing Zeke to grab the Mic from stage right and then venture back into the crowd.
You probably all know how that pans out, and soon enough we have another fucked mic. The crowd helps out by passing another one out, but by the time it gets there, it’s fucked too. May I suggest looking into a wireless setup for this kind of scenarios? Anyway, after finally making his way back onstage, Zeke tells everyone to shut up and then thanks them all for singing along after giving them a lesson on how they should technically be able to hear him without a microphone. Rightio then, might have to turn the band down …
Oh, and about those guys, they’ve been fucking killing it, but you kind of lose track of them trying to keep track of the out-front man. With another mic replacement in hand, the band bounce into Community which turns out to be a bit of a crowd favourite. Next up is a nice cruisy track called Maybe, which is about the band getting back together. And now that’s over, Zeke heads back out into the crowd for Think, but not before warning them to not pull on his mic cable this time around. They seem to behave themselves, and he makes it all the way through the track without fucking it. Something something about AI music sucking as he gets back onstage. He sure doesn’t like to spend too much time up there, but when he does, he talks a lot.
Five Days is up next, and the crowd seems to know all the words as they sing them back at the band while bobbing their heads along. That’s not too shabby for the last track on a new album. The parents in the crowd get a big thank you for bringing their teenage kids along and are told they are doing parenting right, and then the crowd split for Zeke and guitarist Pete Williamson to get amongst it and get down on the floor. Not so new anymore bassist Kade Turner doesn’t join in on the fun but instead just locks into the groove onstage as he has done for the whole performance.
The band leaves stage for an encore break that they announced two songs ago. Shortly after, drummer Zane Rosanoski re-enters the stage and gives us a quick solo before the band emerges and Zeke asks the crowd if they’ve seen Point Blank, The Matrix and Bill & Teds Bogus Journey. We all know where this is going as we get told they are finishing up with the lead single Keanu Reeves from their latest album The Penny Drop. A million shoutouts go out, well maybe 5, and then the band smashes Hellyeah from their 2006 self-titled EP.
The song suddenly stops mid-way through, and Zeke announces that he will be joining the crowd again, but this time by jumping on top of it. Nice of him to let people know rather than breaking some unexpected victims neck I guess, and maybe that his way of showing how much he loves his crowd. He sure does love his crowd interaction, that’s for sure.
The song rocks out to its end and a few more shoutouts are thrown out while the crowd applauds the band offstage. Killer show. It’s great to see these guys back onstage again after their third or fourth hiatus. They just keep coming back, like a stampeding Mammal.
