Australian fans have waited a long time for Seattle-based instrumental band, Earth, to reach their shores. In their 23 year-long career, Earth have never once brought their unique breed of droning, minimalist doom metal this far from home. It’s safe to say that it was well worth the wait for the excited punters at The Toff In Town.
The evening kicked off with opening act Marco Fusinato, an Australian based artist and experimental musician. Fusinato explores the language and nature of noise, focusing on the misuse of electronic devices. During his performance, Fusinato used a guitar as well as other devices to demonstrate his extremely unusual version of music, unlike anything you would hear on radio or TV.
To put is simply, Fusinato created noise – rhythm free, melody free, electronic noise. Yet he cannot be criticised for this, given that his intention is to experiment and to push the boundaries of music. The crowd didn’t seem overly keen to observe Fusinato’s work. A few stood close, but many remained far back, drinking and talking by the bar and doing their best to cope with the obscure sounds coming from the stage.
At the end of Fusinato’s set, the crowd began to build at a rapid pace. The crowd was predominantly male, but was a diverse mix of young and old; hipster and metal. One thing all the punters seemed to have in common was the distinct musician vibe. They all appeared to understand music on a level that was different from the average concert-goer.
Earth arrived on stage to thunderous applause and it became evident that the audience had high expectations of the Seattle group’s abilities. After apologising for banning flash photography, Dylan Carlson, announced that the band would play “Badger”. From that moment on the crowd was completely and utterly mesmerized. Over 90 minutes, Earth took the audience on an extremely well crafted auditory adventure.
The audiences experienced slow, dark, winding riffs, which had the ability to transport the listener from the venue to another universe made up only of music. Despite the repetitious nature of Earth’s tunes, the decision to play each note was deliberate. The choice to omit or add a note, to mute a note or let it ring out was done with a precision and knowledge rarely witnessed in music.
It soon became obvious that Earth were just as absorbed and mesmerised by the sounds they were creating as the audience. It was refreshing to see such passion and enthusiasm for music from a band, especially one with such a long history. Earth were there for the love of music and not the paycheck they would receive for performing.
The majority of songs were from the two most recent Angel albums. They delivered slow moving, repetitive, lengthy songs. This demonstrated Earth’s progression from a primarily metal-based sound to one that contains obvious elements of jazz and country music.
This progression suited their live performance perfectly and set a calm, relaxed vibe for the evening. Earth’s final song, “Tallahassee” saw the vibe of the evening escalate.
There was an air of professionalism to their set also, Carlson didn’t call for applause, swear or talk about how much they love the audience on stage, but when he spoke it was engaging, retaining a strong stage presence.
The gig felt more refined and sophisticated than other shows as the band took time in between each song to retune their instruments. This sort of authentic musicianship kept the audience captivated throughout the performance.
Earth’s incredible performance connected everyone with the beautiful music Earth created. Perhaps it was the intimacy of the Toff, or simply the nature of the punters or something else entirely. What ever it was, I’m betting Melburnians are hoping we won’t have to wait another 23 years to see this band again.
– Cara Jackson
