Words by Lewd Scoff
Melodic progressive guitar-based music has been on quite a journey throughout the last 40 years. From the awesome production and single-minded brilliance of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, via Yngwie Malmsteem‘s exposé on putting Paganini’s works through the pickups of a scalloped Fender Stratocaster and now ending up in the multi-technique bewilderment of Tosin Abasi and POLYPHIA’s Tim Henson, the genre has all facets of music under its scope.
Hence, why it was with great pleasure I, along with a packed-out Triffid audience, got to bear witness to an array of superb quality modern instrumental rock.
Jakub Źytecki hails from Poland and sets the bar with regard to musicianship and sound quality by playing 1st tonight. For me, this set was by far the best-sounding show I have ever heard at the Triffid. Especially for an opening act !!!
A couple of issues with the front of house P.A were ironed out and gave the audience a sense of how much reverb was being utilised within the set. A sound that borrows a lot of from EDM production, meeting up with ANIMALS AS LEADERS to discuss insane grinding down-tuned grooves in the space of a minute. Not as much singing as on his studio releases, but the sprinkles of vocals offered here and there were enough to sate those keen for some introspective layering to the soundscapes.
If this is the opening act, then we are in for multiple eargasms followed by a slow post-coital cigarette.
Repetition over typical EDM chord progressions give a melancholy subsection to the chordal counterpoint providing an audio energy that sits somewhere between PINK FLOYD, FRED AGAIN and ALICE IN CHAINS music-wise.
This is one of the only times I have gone to review bands and not been glued to my phone writing a note-by-note account of what is going on. However, I was forced to just relax and enjoy the journey each band took me on, watching and dancing in awe at the musicianship on display and to wax lyrical to my trusted guest who happened to be bass wonderkid Zaac Thomson from local Thrash legends ODIUS. As a bass player myself, we were there for all the music, but we had an undertone desire to be blown away by some bossy bombastic bass. And we were not disappointed.
Anyone who follows YouTube’s music scene will know who Adam Neely is. Bass and theory extraordinaire, I have learnt so much over the years being an avid fan of his on the video streaming platform. I did not know, that he was the bassist for SUNGAZER, tonight’s 2nd act. Zaac and myself could not stop gushing over this man’s prowess both on the fretboard and banter-wise, as he engaged with the audience implying, he was the leader of SUNGAZER.
Dual solo lines with the tenor saxophone, amazing clear scale runs coming at lightning pace and a groove that sits so firmly in the pocket that the legend Carol Kaye would be impressed. SUNGAZER started playing a surreal opener to their set that lasted one minute. A quick-witted punter offered the classic request, ‘one more song.’ That would have to be the heckle of the year at a live music gig so far.
Arpeggiated chords with precise in the pocket drumming set to a bottom end straight from hell is only one of the many ways to describe this group’s music. Lush with progressive undertones, this is really a showcase of extreme jazz fusion for lovers of perfectly executed high-end music theory, with constant on-stage jokes like ‘this is a fan for people who love the 16/12-time signature’.
One song which seemed to be a crowd favourite had a very strong melody reminiscent to Whitney Houston’s Saving All My Love for You, which after witnessing ATREYU do I Wanna Dance with Somebody, the week before, makes me think that bands feel Brisbane needs more Whitney in their lives and I kind of agree.
The band taught us all how to do the Sungazer 2-step. A dance that purposefully goes out of time and gets confusing for the most sober of dancers let alone the band who was also doing the dance whilst playing in a very obscure time signature. Again, amazing talent that is approachable by any guitar loving enthusiast.
Uniformly dressed as what could be perceived as an Olympic cycling team costume, the band played cracking renditions of songs from their Above the Clouds album from 2021. They finished with a cover of Vital Transformation by John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, which began as a showcase of Adam’s fellow Youtuber Shawn Crowder. It is essentially Adam and Shawn’s band, and they rotate a list of fellow YouTube/jazz fusion peers. Tonight, for example, had Shubh Saran on guitar.
A huge crescendo and chordal rise to finish followed by a quick funk-core EDM styled jam to leave the keen crowd spent and ready for the juggernaut that is PLINI.
PLINI are anthemically heavy and when in their element, it feels like a subliminal wave of light goes through the entire audience’s body simultaneously, connecting all with the quagmire bottom end that never bottoms out frequency-wise. Full credit to the production team tonight, the sound was on point for the entire concert. No bottom-end confusion, just well sculptured Hertz giving space for every frequency.
The members of PLINI are insanely talented and well deserved of their online praise from industry juggernauts such as Rick Beato, Bradley Hall etc.
There was a little playback issue with the laptops, which happens with these modern shows, but that was sorted within a minute, giving the band time to banter with the crowd. Doing a shoey was the night’s hot topic, as well as talk of an impending on-stage collaboration with another band that played tonight.
Then it was time for some odd tuning tricks of the ear and endless exuberant flourishes by the masters of their craft. The band was so incredibly tight that the djent sections of the show almost threw out my equilibrium. Just magical. Throughout these tight riff-based proceedings, bassist Simon Grove was a consistent powerhouse and went to town on his unique-looking boutique bass, the Le Fay Herr Shwarz HL.
I love a well-orchestrated shift in time signature, and I am getting it rammed down my fucking neck at every turn around . If this was a website, it would be Only Fans for sonic dorks. Taking self-indulgence and giving it a thoughtful, empathetic twist. We get the practise and tenacity that the players go through to be able to entertain us in this fashion tonight.
All concerned had a chance to shine throughout the set, including drummer Chris Allison who annihilated us with an amazing drum solo. Hard and heavy, chaotic yet in your face. The sonic trickery I mentioned before was on hand with basslines sounding like they were played on fretless bass but were not, and guitar sounds that sounded like alto saxophone lines but were not which morphed into tenor sax lines as the SUNGAZER saxophonist was the 1st guest act on PLINI’s stage.
The crowd was rabid for a shoey and were chanting demanding for one before the penultimate song of the night. The band however was adamant that there was to be no drinking from the sacred but on their behalf, although they did encourage the crowd to engage in the Aussie tradition.
The final song was a drop A (think LUNA SHORE riff heaviness) that contained space amongst its brutality and beauty surrounding the aggressive undercurrent. Follow this up with a sea of Plini Roessler-Holgate’s guitar soaring like angelic lasers into a drop A riff that shook my ears so hard they were left lying on the floor by my feet. Pure PANTERA like production that will stay with me forever. Those present will wax lyrical over this gig for years to come.
The final song (Plini mentions there will be no cliché encore) of the night had some amazing Nick Mason style blossoming via the drum toms, setting the scene for a culmination of all guitarists of the night trading off solos with each other. 1st act Jakub Źytecki employs a swing blues jam feel which rises into spacious Gilmouronics where the wonderkid takes us on a literal vocal-based crowd-powered sonic roller-coaster of space prog.
And the crowd responds dutifully, like a techno crowd where all the fruity disco biscuits kick in at once. Follow this with a 3 way jam off for tech players with feel. Simply an honour to witness live. The modern era of guitar-based instrumental music nature that likes it heavy lives on. Yay.
From the point of view of someone like myself who likes to analyse music constantly, I felt through the responses and banter returned, that the crowd was mostly at least on nodding terms with melody structure and modal harmony that can be manipulated into something mind-bending yet still approachable in humorous way.
PLINI played a brilliant end to the round solo before the 4 bar-shortened motifs and phrases took over with call and response from the master musicians, increasing the intensity of what shred guitar or any instrument played at a virtuosic standard should sound like.
To finish off the entire night, a million notes were played in unison with military precision by the entire on-stage ensemble.
As I left the venue, I overheard someone say a comment to the effect of, ‘the songs start as a vague sunrise and end up blowing you away through to the sunset.’ Yes. Very true.
