Live Review: Thee Oh Sees, Nobunny & Mining Boom

In the lead up to All Tomorrow's Parties: I'll Be Your Mirror, a number of bands on the line-up have already started their sideshows, and in support of those bands are bands like Mining Boom, a group from Melbourne who played well despite a shitty sound and delays while said shittiness was being sorted. Adding to the challenge was a band pulling out supposedly that night, meaning the Boomers had to contend with going on first, but they handled it well, and their music was a million and one types of '60s garage and post-punk – it was good. Nobunny are an American band who had a lead singer that dressed in a mask representative of a herbivorous pest, a leather jacket and a pair of 'Holy shit, is he wearing...' gnarly set of dickies. Setting aside the novelty, the songs were heavy with chunky riffs and a no-holds-barred approach to the punk rock genre.

Returning to our fair shores, Thee Oh Sees still get by doing their own road duties and soundchecks, and were superb in their execution and delivery on the night. Opting for songs from previous records despite a new EP coming out last year (the very good Putrifiers II album) of which only the one song was played (that song was the very excellent Lupine Dominus) but the band made up for the slight by playing a myriad of tracks from their extensive back-catalogue, opening with the opener favourite Contraption/Soul Desert and following later with the now almost defunct live track Meat Step Lively, the song played at double the speed of sound. A great show overall and a good prelude to what is going to be a great music festival.