After its performance space was successfully christened by a James Blake DJ set last week, brand new Brunswick venue Howler played host to expat duo HTRK on Friday night.
This presented Melbournians with their only chance to witness the band play a headline show in their former hometown for the rest of 2013.
This, along with the promise of new material from the acclaimed industrial/post-punk act, ensured that Howler’s 400-capacity band room was completely sold out prior to the gig.
Upon entering Howler, the emphasis placed on design at the venue was impossible to miss. From the immense beer garden – featuring steel tree sculptures, a giant floating planter box and custom timber furniture – to the wood panelled, backlit side walls and illuminated hanging boxes of the bandroom, this is one damned-good-looking bar.
Perhaps punters were so enraptured by Howler’s impressive beer garden and front bar that they were delayed en route to the rear performance space, as Rat & Co opened the night to a crowd of less than 25.
Like the audience, the opening band was noticeably light on numbers; with bassist and front man Joshua Delaney missing from the lineup. Despite this significant omission, the remaining members delivered a smooth set of their trademark atmospheric/electro jams.
Rat & Co were followed on stage by local shoegaze act Lowtide, whose dual bass guitar lines and enchanting vocal harmonies washed over the slowly building crowd.
Special mention must also be made of the boys from New War who DJ’d between sets on the night, displaying impressive and eclectic tastes.
After a lengthy set-up delay, the main act took to the stage with such little fanfare that some members of the audience didn’t even register their appearance – or so it seemed from the exorbitant level of chatter in the room.
Unfortunately, this was a problem that plagued the performance and the haunting effect of HTRK’s dark, moody tone was greatly diminished because of it.
Nonetheless, the duo opened well with ‘Poison’ and ‘Synthetik’ – two of the strongest tracks off their last release; 2010’s Work (Work, Work).
These songs highlighted HTRK’s trademark electronic drone sound as well as Jonnine Standish’s melancholic, sexy and intoxicatingly repetitive vocal style. It was, however, the piercing post-punk style guitar lines played by Nigel Yang that really gave these songs their edge and also indicated the influence former mentor and producer Rowland S Howard had on the group.
Since the sad passing of third member Sean Stewart in 2010, Standish and Yang have continued HTRK as a duo.
They used the remainder of the performance to preview material that they had been working on since that time, playing four new tracks which one can only assume will appear on the act’s much-anticipated new album, due for release in 2014.
While maintaining the moody atmosphere of their earlier work, the presence of more melodic vocal lines and a greater emphasis being placed on programmed beats helped give these new compositions a further layer of intrigue and drive.
Despite the high quality of the music, the rowdy audience could not be quieted, and no real meaningful connection was made between them and the band. After just 40 minutes the show was wrapped up and Standish and Yang exited the stage – a somewhat disappointing end to such a highly anticipated gig.
