Live Review: Mere Women, Nature Trails, Forevr

After a rough start with a termite infestation that caused them to close down for months after their opening night in May, The Foundry is back up and running and delivering some seriously good shows. Tonight's line-up benefits from the best sound system and techs in this town — this'll be a room bands look forward to playing. First up is Forevr, doing something that not many acts can: they're loud without being aggressive, and cool while still expressing something real. These songs just build and build and build — you're falling through layers of sound but where you land is soft and beautiful. Even Midas At Night, which starts with their most abrasive and distorted guitar, ends up having a sweetly hypnotic vocal hook. Shoegaze is music you really have to dive into completely to appreciate, and Forevr make the leap very easy.

It's hard to make a snap judgement of a band like Nature Trails. With deep droning vocals, sterile beats and incessantly technical guitar, it's the kind of thing that, with repeat listens, might reveal more nuance and dynamics. But at face value it sounds slightly samey and over-serious without conveying much of anything. There's not a lot going on for how hard everyone on stage seems to be trying. However, their last, and apparently new, song is their best and most focused; indicating better stuff to come.

Finally the answer to the age-old question; "Why the fuck would anyone move to Sydney?" Maybe cause that's where Mere Women are from, and they're one of the best live bands in the country. Last year's record Your Town was a take-no-prisoners ripper of what people call post-punk — but is really elemental rock'n'roll — and there's something about the absolute power of these three musicians on stage that makes you wanna be laughably effusive... and say dumb shit like 'elemental rock'n'roll'.

As soon as they rip through the hit parade of Home, Our Street, and Heave Ho in the first half of the set, it's clear that there's not enough exaggeration in the world for how well these songs work. There's nothing you could add or take away to make this band better. With gale-force vocals, a drummer giving the machines in the previous bands a run for their money in precision (and absolutely slaying them for pure power) and grimly ear-wormy guitar that sounds like it's played through gritted teeth, every moment is gripping and exciting. The biggest surprise is that we all aren't pummelled a metre into the floor by the end of the set, which, of course, comes far too soon. But with new songs on the way we can hope Mere Women will be back before too long, 'cause there's not a lot to top this in the meantime.