Live Review: Ty Segall, The Babe Rainbow, Thigh Master

The night bursts out of the blocks with an outpouring of exceptional music by an upcoming local band with massive substance. Thigh Master may be on the newish side – and be sporting a slightly abridged line-up with a key member interstate – but they nonetheless unleash a barrage of catchy and well-crafted rock’n’roll.

Frontman Matthew Ford shouts with measured vitriol, but the band’s great hooks and cruisy melodies offset any gruffness in the vocals – like an Aussie Eric Bachmann fronting The Clean – and it all marries really well, strengthened by deft guitar interplay. Recent single, Head Of A Witch is a standout amongst a requisitely strong batch. Awesome.

Next up are a trio of surfer-looking guys with a standing drummer in the centre offering the vocals – it’s gotta be Byron Bay’s The Babe Rainbow. While their look may have a windswept ‘70s Cali vibe their music has a more subtle ‘60s psych tinge, and they maintain a relatively mellow tempo for the duration of their set. The cover of The Seeds’ Pushin’ Too Hard (from the Nuggets compilation) goes down well, but there’s a peak in familiarity when they offer up the strangely-monikered Secret Enchanted Broccoli Forest.

There’s a vastly larger crowd awaiting Californian garage aficionado Ty Segall than when he visited Brisbane last, and he’s increased the size of the onstage contingent from that trip as well, an extra guitar making three become four, and this additional axe makes its presence felt from the get-go, Charlie Moonheart holding the rhythm fort and letting his bandleader off the leash with sometimes stunning effect. Opener, Finger is guttural and moving, and The Groundhogs’ Rich Man, Poor Man makes an early appearance, prompting a deluge of crowd-surfers and even stage-divers in a rarely seen display of old-school solidarity. The title track of recent seventh album, Manipulator, sounds massive and vicious with jagged edges – all of the tracks from that album buzz with the extra care they were afforded compared to their tossed-off contemporaries but it all sounds great.

Segall himself makes a laid-back and unassuming hero, seeming to be having as much fun as anyone, and he shows compassion for his fans when checking the status of a stage invader carted off by security during the awesome glam stomp of Tall Man, Skinny Lady, announcing this clear community with a rallying cry of, “You guys can jump up here and do whatever you want!” Having thus blurred the lines between artist and crowd the four-piece continue with a steady stream of garage bangers including Mother Lemonade, Muscle Man and Standing At The Station. Ty’s guitar looks for all intents and purposes like an extension of his body rather than a tool the way he flails around, and the manner in which he feels and serves the music above all else is intoxicating.

There’s a severe revivalist bent to his tunes – pilfering in places from rock, psych, surf, motoric, glam and more – but it’s always served with a unique spin that makes it sound his own. Hints of bubblegum poke through the racket in the catchy Imaginary Person, and the rhythm section – the deft Emily Rose Epstein on drums and uber-talented Mikal Cronin on bass – add flair and unity. The stream of great tracks seems endless – Segall may be prolific but his quality is never snuffed by quantity – and while Thank God For Sinners and Wave Goodbye rule the roost late it seems perfectly apt when they end a brilliantly fun set with a (perhaps impromptu) shambolic rendition of Sabbath’s Paranoid to close proceedings. It’s going to be fascinating to see where this huge guitar talent turns his focus next, but there’ll definitely be some fun and good times involved along the way.