Live Review: Tash Sultana, Ocean Alley, Reuben Stone

3 April 2017 | 1:03 pm | Michael Prebeg

"'I'm not much of a charmer but I don't really care,' Sultana says unapologetically."

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Reuben Stone looks as if he's been jamming for hours before he even begins. With his backwards cap over his shaggy blonde hair, guitar pressed up against his shirtless body and bright red pants, he's all fired up and completely in the zone. And it's not long until we're right there with him as he draws us in with his frenetic psychedelic rock, full of echoing vocals that reverberate throughout the room. Stone stretches his songs out to make it feel like one big progressive jam. He asks us if it's cool to "fully fucking rave out" during Push To The Limit as he bounces around the stage and grabs his trombone for a trippy live loop recording. He breaks it down into a meditative state before playing it back to us with the sound of our own cheers.

A swirling black-and-white animation on the screen hypnotises us as six-piece band Ocean Alley begin their introduction. The band mostly consists of guitars, but the keyboards actually stand out the most. Their slow, grooving, soulful rock is soothing and euphoric. Ocean Alley take it back to their earlier stuff from the Yellow Mellow EP before introducing us to their super-fresh, super-fun new single Overgrown — it's the highlight of their set and features some wicked electric guitar solos.

Tash Sultana gives us an impressive new song to start, followed by Big Smoke, during which she begins to loop her beatboxing over jangly guitars and engaging vocals. The slow build-up gains momentum and then explodes on unexpected tangents via electric guitar solos and foot stomping. "Okay, I've done this four times this week so by now I think I know the structure," she says. "Sundays are my favourite day of the week and I welcome you all to the experience." With a three-tier stack of keyboards, synths, drum pads and sampling equipment to her left, four guitars to her right, pedals down below and two microphones out in front, Sultana gets completely carried away within her musical bubble of instruments. It's invigorating to watch her perform as each song builds, layer upon layer of looped sounds that she creates in front of us. She even adds a trombone and pan flute into the crazy whirlwind of sounds to change things up throughout.

Before sharing a new heavy and emotional song, Sultana opens up about some hard times that she went through recently after losing someone close to her. "It made me realise the two things in life that are inevitable - you live and die," she tells us. "There's this bit in between and it's how you pull yourself out of it that determines how you're gonna deal with it all." Her close friends and family are standing sidestage in support, but her biggest rock is her dad who is at the ready, handing her the various instruments she plays and then taking them away as required. "If you cheer loud enough, he'll share his talent with us!" she teases. Mr Sultana then takes the stage with a beer in hand and drops down into a full split.

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The audience requests a cover, but Sultana shakes her head: "I've spent too much time writing my own shit to do covers." Sultana unleashes her primal instincts during Jungle and drops down on her knees for a big guitar solo to finish. She then takes a seat for her final song. "I ripped a hole in my jeans in an area you don't want that to happen. I'm not much of a charmer but I don't really care," Sultana says unapologetically.

After a more-than-30-minute encore, Sultana plays one last out-of-control jam, letting loose and using up every last bit of energy.