Live Review: Earthless, Grinding Eyes, Space Carbonara, Frozen Planet... 1969

Ah, the endless possibilities and variations of psychedelic music! Tonight was a showcase of different strands of the genre where abstraction is encouraged, form and arrangements are often disregarded and the audience’s minds and feet are given equal workouts.

Frozen Planet.... 1969 opened the evening with the proclamation, “Let’s jam,” and proceeded to do just that for the next 30 minutes. The trio showed great technical ability on their instruments (guitar, drums, bass) and enough variation and dynamic shifts to maintain the attention of the still-arriving audience. With the drums front and centre, it felt like that instrument was leading the way and shaping the direction of the heavy, fast and swirling music, and it worked well. Props to bassist Lachlan Paine who played most of their set minus his G string.

Space Carbonara seemed at first like the odd ones out. On face value they looked like a young indie-rock band but they showed that looks can be deceiving. They balanced the indie with an equal amount of wigged-out garage psych-rock heaviness. The three guitars gave depth and texture to their sound and it was only the vocals that were a weak point in their songs. Think King Gizzard meets the Oh Sees.

Grinding Eyes have been on the local scene for a couple of years now and over that time they’ve stripped their sound down, immersing themselves in dark, hypnotic psych-rock, where the vocals work as another instrument, buried in the mix. In near-darkness, apart from a radiant technicolor blast of light, they dug into their songs, finding claustrophobic rhythms amid the scree of paint-peeling guitar. It was inward, immersive and droning rock music, quite the contrast to the previous act.

Earthless are of course one of the current reigning champs of psychedelic space-rock. Looking around at their audience it was interesting to see the range of fans they’ve pulled into their orbit. Patched denim metal punks, shorts and Chucks hardcore kids, ageing Hendrix and Floyd fans, all in harmony and getting lost in the interwoven riffs, phenomenal drumming and airtight bass-playing of Isaiah Mitchell, Mario Rubalcaba and Mike Eginton respectively. Last year’s Black Heaven album elevated them to a more prominent status in the scene on the back of more concise songs and the introduction of vocals to their studio recordings for the first time. Those things made for a more focused Earthless live show, without sacrificing any of their legendary and epic, shredding jams. 

They opened with a 20-minute showcase of what they do best, building and teasing the song to searing heights. Black Heaven’s title track, Electric Flame, Volt Rush and the Motley Crue-referencing Gifted By The Wind were all highlights of the way the trio blend simplicity and virtuosity. Mitchell made his playing look effortless while Rubalcaba was the engine of the band, adding complex detail to his drumming one minute and then hammering out a hardcore rhythm the next. One hour of face-melting psychedelic space-metal and then they were gone: lights on, house music feebly battling beautifully battered eardrums as the line at the merch desk snaked across the room.