Live Review: Horror My Friend, Magic Bones, Tea, Hello, Lover

Horror My Friend

The Crown & Anchor was buzzing tonight, probably because Horror My Friend’s A Million Hands EP launch had all but sold out earlier in the day. The quickly-growing audience and the bands themselves were pumped for a long night of booze and loud guitars.

Hello, Lover opened with their vaguely Mogwai-an approach to post-rock. The ethereal three-piece is the project of Larissa Perry, who now has Jeremy Lake and Alex Ciaravolo as her permanent rhythm section (you may recognise all three from departed Adelaide crew 20th Century Graduates). Perry opened with the beautiful Distance Is Cruel, from her No-One Cares EP, before the others joined her for a melodic, moody set. Their dystopian deconstruction of Regurgitator’s Polyester Girl  was more engaging than anything coughed up by triple j’s Like A Version and simply has to be heard to be believed.

Up next was a rare appearance by ramshackle rock’n’rollers Tea, who sound kind of like a pissed Paul Kelly fronting Crazy Horse. Tea weren’t tight by any stretch of the imagination but their exuberance and unabashed love of performing patched over any shortcomings. The highlight was, of course, Burnside Mums, and the tragedy remains that few, if any, actual Burnside mums will ever hear this affectionate ode to their kind.

Melbourne’s Magic Bones took the stage with a lightning-paced garage version of Subterranean Homesick Blues that Zimmerman himself would have been pretty chuffed with. After that they were hard to pin down, playing blitzkrieg garage-rock one moment and swampier, bluesier fare the next. The talented four-piece swapped instruments every other song, and their duelling female/male vocals created some interesting moments.

But tonight was always about Horror My Friend. Without fanfare they launched into No Energy, the opening track from A Million Hands. Ears were instantly pinned back by the sheer volume of Tom Gordon and Josh Battersby, who were at times actually drowning out the pounding of drummer Alex Christophel. Songs came thick and fast, including oldies Birds and Lifeblood, and the Zan Rowe-approved single Kaleidoscope. There were occasional rough vocal moments and some truly pain-inducing PA feedback, but the sweat-clad fans singing along obviously didn’t care. Their moshing and cheering continued right up to the epic climax of the EP’s title track. Horror My Friend have a cool little release under their belts and this was a promising start to a nationwide tour that will deliver balls-out indie rock until early September.