Live Review: Hideous Sun Demon, Hunting Huxley, Aborted Tortoise, Emu Xperts

Winding around the narrow back bar to reach the Rosemount's main stage for Hideous Sun Demon's album fundraiser, the thudding cock rock produced by rude and crude openers Emu Xperts made a harsh promise of what was to come. With towering, tattooed frontman Blake Hate streaming blood from his left shoulder and roaring along to grunt rock anthems such as Dexy's Midnight Hummers and You Won't Like Me When I'm Sober, the Xperts blasted the stage with frightening presence, leading a small but savage crowd and littering the venue with Export cans.

While the venue emptied for a cigarette break, young by-the-book punks Aborted Tortoise skulked onto stage, opening to an empty bar with brutal misogynistic tirade, Last Night I Killed My Girlfriend, at top volume, a beckoning call for smokers to pour back into the Rosemount for more solid offerings as Social Crime, ground out over John Peers' filthy bass with sloppy, jangly guitars and vacant gazes as Charles Wickham, dreamy Woodstock sweater model, and Tom Milan, hunched over his guitar, competed for solos. Aborted Tortoise drove through their set with barely a breath to the glee of an increasingly bloodthirsty audience and then departed as quickly as they appeared.

Hunting Huxley, acknowledging the addition of fill-in drummer Jerome Turle by coyly renaming themselves Grunting Fuxley, or Hunting Huskies, sloped onto stage next with their marathon soundscapes headed by a booming '80s sample, “Space is curved…', leading into the psychedelic, bass-driven Planet Terror. After a quick detour into a cover of Lana Del Rey's Summertime Sadness, complete with cheeky grins, Huxley moved into more stoner rock territory with instrumentals Ring and Flavours, aided by Cramie Mill Jammy on saxophone for their final offering. Dressed like prog magicians and getting increasingly so as time progresses, Huxley provided blissful, content-heavy downtime for the punks present.

Finally, Fremantle's very own Hideous Sun Demon come onboard, launching straight into their double-speed stimulant rock with lead, Vin, particularly maniacal in sheer black blouse, his blonde crown lit up by the stage lights and cut apart by his vicious, infectious grin. A killer performance of favourite, Do You Like It Down There?, glides faultlessly into Ohio (Is It Dead Yet?), proving that as Hideous Sun Demon push for new heights, they've not yet hit the sun. After a quick and inexplicably polite plug for upcoming LP, Sweat, the speed demons rip through Glue and Monoculture with a crazy, anxious and competitive speed, leaving a gracious audience to worm their way home.