Live Review: Dead Meadow

The accompanying entourage for Dead Meadow (who clearly worshipped the main act) started with the lo-fi of Los Sundowners, a collective of musicians who may or may not have ties to the Black Mountain co-op. Thrown into the mix was a combo of male and female lead vocals, a drummer that either forgot his hi-hat stand or doesn't use one as part of his stage persona and a guy on what looked like an old Korg portable organ.

Shoegazing foursome The Laurels didn't do anything out of the ordinary however, surprisingly, their set featured a new guy on road duties, meaning the inner-west's favourite laziest band just got a whole lot more lazy. They still rocked though.

Pink Mountaintops form part of the Black Mountain initiative and were fronted by Stephen McBean who was accompanied by the lead percussionist from Los Sundowners and a guy who was a dead ringer for Davey Lane circa 2002 (on organ). Touted as the more experimental side of McBean's endeavours, the ominous sound displayed a lot of soul despite the lack of instruments and found a few nods from a modest crowd that would have been perhaps better suited to a smaller room.

Dead Meadow took to the stage, looking as young as the day they started as the original three-piece that recorded their self-debut in 2001. Excitement built song after song with much wailing and gnashing of teeth and, before you could say 'distortion', the crowd were rocking the joint. Mostly playing the tunes that fitted somewhere in between the psych and stoner rock sub-genres of their bag, the three-piece filled the large space onstage with plenty of fuzzed solos, cutting bass and vintage drum rolls. The band even managed to sneak in a number of songs from their first record, one of which was Indian Bones that, from memory, was the one frontman Jason Simons commented they hadn't played for about six or seven years (however that could have been ten). Rocky Mountain High also got the once-over and would have received a standing ovation if we weren't already on our feet and was by far their best song, particularly the lead guitar, whose setup must be a heavily guarded secret. It was a great night of music, with the vibe and energy continuing beyond the encore.