Live Review: Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving, The Reptilians, Sharon

Fremantle Wind Farm is a grass roots project looking to provide renewable energy to the Fremantle community. Saturday night saw a number of great Perth bands get together to raise funds for the important project, and raise awareness about renewable energy in Australia.

Opening up the night were newcomers Luke Dux And The Buds. Mixing muddy blues with dirty rock they kicked things off with some ground shaking bass lines and some of the hardest drum hits you’ll see outside of a shark baiting program. The raspy vocals of Dux were accented by some killer sax solos from Jozef Grech which got a great reaction from the small but supportive crowd.

The night had a proposed speech from Greens Senator Scott Ludlum, however circumstances forced him to pull out of the event. There was noticeable disappointment in the air, but Greens candidate Sarah Nielson-Harvey spoke on his behalf giving an impassioned speech about the state of renewable energies in Australia.

Next up were the folk-punk miscreants known as The I’s. Lead by the infamous Johnny Ajax, their set was raw, emotional and occasionally erratic. The reaction from the crowd was great, many fans cheering and raising their glasses as they gathered around the bar.

Sharon took the stage next and livened things up with an interesting blend of old-school hardcore, and new-school speed rock. Each song was seemingly faster, shorter and more abrasive than the one before it. Vocalist Brandon Wilks shouts his way through each song in a style reminiscent of Ron Reyes (Black Flag et al).  Their sound was well received by the audience who was slowly starting to show a little life with people dancing at the front of stage.

The bands had gotten progressively heavier over the night, but to say that The Reptilians were heavy is an understatement. The band is unrelentingly psychotic - a mix of grind and hardcore punk that is brutal by nature, yet catchy in its own way. Fronting the band is Blake Hate, one of the more outrageous frontmen in Perth, and performances like this show why he is also one of the best. He commands the attention of the room, his vocals vitriolic, venomous, and drenched in sarcasm. Their songs Earth’s Dead, (Stop Crying) and the bitter King Brown launched the small crowd into a frenzy, the chaos on stage setting the tone for the mania below.

It was clear Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving have a dedicated fan-base, with a substantial crowd coming in late to watch their set. The instrumental Perth band is a truly unique creature, a mix of fusion jazz, heavy metal, doom and neo-classical that is both wondrous and melancholy at the same time. Their set is hard to break down into songs, and works almost as a soundtrack – a story that seems to be told by Ron Pollards haunting keys.

Their music wanders from genre to genre, influence to influence - a momentary echo of Ennio Morricone before a jumping into heavy metal, periods of immense soundscape followed by hardcore breakdowns. Tangled Thoughts of Leaving are something pretty special and they were a great way to close out the night.