For a night of debaucherous punk, sweat, and screaming, Melbourne’s Batpiss were the perfect introductory element, head-banging their way through a bunch of material that would make Slayer blush.
Sporting a confronting name and one hell of a confronting set, the three-piece were a vicious whirlwind of bellowing and gale-force wind riffs.
Saying Batpiss were a tight outfit would be an understatement. The trio locked into each other’s grooves like they were trying to shoot missiles at each other.
Their music is a cacophony of loud and crude misgivings that needs to be seen live to be fully appreciated. With songs like ‘Loose Screws’ and ‘Come Here And ‘Fuck Off’, the curious crowd of onlookers soon became totally infatuated fans.
After the crowd had their faces torn off by Batpiss, Canberra’s TV Colours took the stage.
Slightly less brutal (but no less valued), TV Colours is the solo project of former Assassins 88 member Bobby Kill. After toiling away on the record that is now known as Purple Skies, Toxic River, TV Colours has expanded into the taut four-piece live band that coiled before the crowd at Good God.
In the flesh, the songs take on a more brilliant life – and that’s saying something, considering Purple Skies, Toxic River is one of the most critically lauded Australian records of the year.
Whilst Bobby Kill and co. played the songs that he’s been working on for the better part of two years, the crowd got more and more frenzied.
As favourites like ‘Beverly’, ‘The Kids Are All Grown Up’, and ‘Bad Dreams’ were dropped into the mix, excitable lyric shout-backs from the audience and their wide grins became more and more abundant.
By the time headliners METZ hit the stage, the crowd were well and truly stoked – especially after being bombasted by two mind-blowing acts before them. But they were in for something completely different from the Canadian hardcore trio.
The band launched into a set that brought an almost unheard amount of energy to the crowd. A typhoon of noisy feedback squalled through the room as the band became a flurry of flying limbs and sweat.
It’s not hard to see why METZ’s songs are so adored by Pitchfork. Although all tracks are mightily similar, they share a totalitarian vibe that demands ‘move your head back and forth at a very fast pace until you can no longer feel your neck joints’.
It was hard to find anyone that wasn’t having the time of their life at the METZ show. The mosh was a violent mix of smiles and strewn bodies. Songs like ‘Get Off’ and ‘Rats’ excited especially feverous responses from the audience.
However, it was the closer ‘Wet Blanket’ that would have stuck in the crowd’s mind. With his see-through, sweat-drenched shirt, lead vocalist/guitarist Alex Edkins contorted dangerously, drummer Hayden Menzies played with a mess of hair and drumsticks, and bassist Chris Slorach guiltily sat back and admired the chaos in front of them.
‘Wet Blanket’ became less a song and more of an event as crowd-surfing, participation, and more ear-bleeding noise than ever became par for the course.
As METZ left in the stage in a blaze of glory, their first ever performance in Australia at a close, it was impossible to find a person in attendance who wasn’t completely enthralled and satisfied with all three bands of the night.
