Live Review: Four Layers Of Zed

Tonight The Underdog fully opens its bustling new doors for an eclectic affair of sorts called Four Layers Of Zed, hosted by Brisbane radio institution 4ZZZ as a part of Brisbane Live Music Week. The crowd is as varied as the bands, and across the venue curiosity for the new mixes with established fandom as people bustle from room to room, seeing something different every half hour.

In the Dining Room stage area a rather stylish pool table (which tonight doubles as a seat/a space for drinks to rest) shares the room with people and the more wonderful oddities assembled onstage. Nana Vigilante starts things off and the brash hip hop stylings are a tad over-compensating and delightful. While the set is generally well received, it was a little hard to be immersed as an opening act. Extrafoxx follows and the set is nothing but headline material as the Foxx himself, Conwae Burrell, charms and styles his way through his back catalogue.

Over in the Band Room, Naked Maja, being somewhat the less traditional band featured on the main stage tonight, play to an intrigued audience. Things are generally quite lush and the sound complements things both loud and quiet. Nite Field's Chris Campion is welcomed by the band for a couple of numbers, adding a layer of brash into the mix, but the set is unfortunately over all too early. Tape/Off follow and the volume is pushed up as they kick off with Backseat and from then on it's a rambunctious affair of '90s-style indie rock. It hits a few slow points in the middle and the odd sound issue crops up but overall things work well. It's not a regular thing to see Girls Girls Girls out of their regular digs in Moorooka but damn it is welcome as they bring a complete opposite spectrum to all the entertainment on offer tonight, with crude and noise-driven experimentalism captivating from start to finish – a delight to have featured on the bill. 

Gerald Keaney & The Gerald Keaneys round out the Dining Room section of the entertainment tonight and the set itself is the usual fair of oddball pop misconstrued into classic punk. The sound does feel a little low for the set, which had been a minor issue throughout the night 'til now, but the enthusiasm that comes with tracks like Videoclip more than make up for it and an encore chant confuses everyone. Over in the Public Bar there's a man sitting on a rather nice chair in the corner and it turns out it was Steve Towson rounding out the room's night, which feels as if this stage doesn't work as well, as it's located right next to the toilet with so much sound bleeding over from other stages that it feels more like a human Nightlife video jukebox in the corner. We All Want To can sometimes be sufferers of over-production in the live environment that often overshadows their entire performance, but tonight they're fortunately alright as a little bit more of an edge comes through. Fans of the band enjoy every minute but in the final moments it fizzles out with Shine, which still sounds like a Christian rock sound any which way you put it.

After the rock'n'roll wraps up, a mysterious voyage downstairs through a land of broken pokie machines resembling a dystopian Terminator-like world in some NY club sets the scene for the DJ level, which is rounded out by a huge handful of a set by Domestic Sphere, complemented by some beefy lasers and a delightful smoke alarm-alerting fog. The set is lapped up by all involved as funk is mixed with more traditional alt-based electronica, and at the end it feels as if '808 4 Lyf' is a tattoo that should be mandatory upon entering the basement.