Live Review: El Colosso, Seims, Oolluu

What a surprise packet Oolluu are!

An all-instrumental three-piece, made up highly skilled veterans of the scene, their sound is an up-tempo, vibey, synth-based concoction of such varied influences as Rick Wakeman, The Moody Blues, Gary Numan and more. No guitars (they're not required in this setting) just the synth, uber-busy drums and a thick wall of bottom-end provided by legendary bass-monger Davarj Thomas, who played in legendary '90s bass-heavy trio Pre-Shrunk as well as the blistering but short-lived local supergroup The Nerve a few years back. Oolluu's compositions are uplifting, they create astounding sounds and amazing music, and appear to be having an absolute ball doing so.

More weird, wonderful and experimental sounds are up next, although of a different kind. Seims are a four-piece instrumental outfit, with the occasional lead vocal thrown in for good measure, who have come down from Sydney and consist of a very talented, Jimmy Page-influenced guitar player, heavy distorted bass (which is sometimes played on a guitar that sounds like a bass), a keyboardist who also pulls out a trumpet on occasion for an even wilder effect and a jazzy but hard-hitting drummer. The lines created by all of the above intertwine intricately with each other, going off in seemingly completely disparate directions at times, but in the end it all still seems to make some sort of contradictory sense. They also make one hell of a racket. The music of Seims could be described as perversely seamless.

Time for another neck-snapping gear change as headliners El Colosso take the stage and smash out a raucous-but-controlled set of their furious, stoner-influenced rock'n'roll. What makes a great band of this ilk is the injection of some boogie and some serious swagger into the wall of guitar-based sound and live performance, and this Melbourne four-piece have both in droves. Although only utilising a single guitar, their sound has some super-serious heft to it, provided mainly by the nuclear-strength lines of bass-pounding local legend Craig Fryers, and this allows the sweet lead guitar and Cornell-inspired vocals to shine over the top. Their set is a rockin', rollin', rollicking good time, best exemplified by the pounding Leatherhead, although they certainly know how to get down, dirty and dredgy when the mood takes them, too.