The Hi-Fi’s curtains open and Seja appears on stage in the middle of three keyboards packed tightly in the centre of the stage obscuring the drummer behind her.
What follows is a set of dreamy synth-pop the songstress and her versatile musicians at her side trading gear between guitars, basses and maracas but with those smooth sweeping keys constantly at the front of the mix.
Former keyboardist of the Gurge themselves and founding member of the perpetually ‘on-hiatus’ Sekiden, Seja plays a set heavy on new album All Our Wires‘s bassier numbers with the occasional softly distorted guitar peeking out from behind layers of keyboards.
“Hey Brisbane, who likes Jurassic Park?” Wampire co-frontman Eric Phipps asks the crowd as the dinosaur movie’s theme plays oddly in the middle of the trio’s set. Clearly stoked to have been asked to make the trip from the US, Wampire provide a welcome counter-point to the opening band’s synth heavy tunes with their own wall of sound approach from the get-go.
The eardrum-rattling guitars and frantic drums of the set’s opening shortly give way to lighter indie rock sounds which, on occasion, devolve into extended psychodelic jams with sirens of feedback backed by a drummer channeling Keith Moon’s wild control.
Having recently released Dirty Pop Fantasy, one of the best Australian albums of the past year, it’s surprising that the crowd gathered for the headliners doesn’t come close to the sold out masses who descended on the Hi-Fi for last year’s Tu-Plang/Unit Retrotech tour. The Mezzanine upstairs is closed off but as the evening wears on the crowd steadily fill any vacant spots on the floor so by the time the theme to Sesame Street starts blaring from the speakers those at the front will be hard pressed to find room to dance.
Appearing onstage in hot pink jumpsuits with tiger print patches, Quan Yeomans, Ben Ely and drummer Peter Kostic are straight down to business with a heaving dose of ‘Blood and Spunk’ and this is when the party starts. New album highlight, ‘Bongzilla’ follows in typical schizophrenic style with its mash-up of genres ending with a completely out of place doom metal guitar riff.
It isn’t long before we get to experience the first of Yeomans’ rap numbers with ‘All Fake Everything’.
He moves around the stage, talking with his hands, guitar-free with his smile never leaving his face. If his band didn’t insist on writing songs about bongs, rimming and fellatio with a penchant of the ‘f-word’ he could be mistaken for a sort of Wiggle who never quite made it.
The set is peppered with grabs from the new album which is as eclectic as anything from their back catalogue. Pop-punk number ‘Fuck You Sweetness’ – which Quan assures us is ‘definitely not a love song’ proves crowd pleasing instantly while Ben makes a point of how much the next song sounds like 80s band Asia and doesn’t disappoint with ‘Home Alone Stoned’.
Seja is welcomed back on stage sporadically to add keys on Unit tracks ‘Black Bugs’ and ‘Polyester Girl’ and scratch effects to the huge and heavy rendition of ‘Kong Foo Sing’ which closed the set proper. The band departed the stage but resurfaced minutes later for the obligatory three song encore of ‘I Wanna Be A Nudist’, ‘I, Zombie’ and the crowd-assisted ’80s dancefloor shifter ‘! (The Song Formerly Known As)’.
The barrage of 2-3 minute sound bites is perfect for a Friday night. There is no filler but if there was there wouldn’t be time enough for it to overstay its welcome before the next bombastic track kicks in. Regurgitator have made a name for themselves as masters of reinvention, energy and out-and-out strangness and tonight is another reminder of what we’ll be missing when, as Ben reminds us, Quan gets married shortly after the tour ends and the band take a well-earned break.
Regurgitator Setlist
Blood and Spunk
Bongzilla
I Will Lick Your Asshole
Track 1
Black Bugs (with Seja)
Sine Wave
Made To Break
Game Over Dude
All Fake Everything
Bong In My Eye
Polyester Girl (feat Seja)
Born Dumb
We Love You
Fucking Up
Blubber Boy
Home Alone Stoned
Fuck You Sweetness
FSO
Kong Foo Sing (feat. Seja)
I Wanna Be A Nudist
I, Zombie
! (The Song Formerly Known As)
