Live Review: sleepmakeswaves, Gay Paris, SparkSpitter

It was an extremely low-key introduction to the night as the house music died down to bring on SparkSpitter with a cycling pattern of percussive samples that slowly wove around the mostly empty room, but with a thumping snare hit, drummer Rohan Goldsmith snapped the band into Hello Meteor. The trio slowly drew the room in, the technicality and complexity of their musicianship somehow lending perfectly to the wandering nature of their tracks, the result a fantastic set that seemed criminally short when their four tracks capped off with Contra Prime Louvre.

If you drained all the cigarette tar, alcohol stains and other suspect bodily fluids from Melbourne’s Cherry Bar and in some Frankenstein-like fashion shoved it in front of instruments, it would be Gay Paris live. The filthy stomping rock’n’roll took the night up another notch, as the insanity of crowd favourites Ash Wednesday Boudoir Party and Trash Bird At Confessional felt no different alongside newer unknown cuts. Frontman Luke ‘Wailin H’ Monks cut shapes like a Mick Jagger lovechild juiced on methamphetamines and Black Flag records, the crowd well and truly in his hand, proven by his ability to have the room sit down so he could tie his shoes. By the time the screaming wails of The Sackcloth Saint Of The Cornfield hit, the war was already won for a room of devilish swamp rock fans.

The set changeover was quick, catching a few people sprinting into the room to see sleepmakeswaves rising into To You They Are Birds, To Me They Are Voices In The Forest, and it took no time at all to see why the room filled so quickly. The powerfully dynamic sound collectively is something to behold on its own, but when delivered with the tenacity and precision shown in Traced In Constellations and Emergent, this group has made a show easily amongst the best touring the country at the moment. A jaw-dropping performance from drummer Tim Adderley lay down the groundwork for others to take Perfect Detonator in myriad directions that only continued to build the ever-increasing atmosphere of the room. As the ever-appreciative band thanked the room at the crescendo of Something Like Avalanches, they delivered a glowing example of just how much care they take in perfecting their craft.