Psychedelic mind warps, stoner jams, and surfer tomfoolery can pretty much sum up what happened at The Tote on Saturday. It was the Melbourne leg of The Growlers’ very first tour of Australia – and after selling out each of their major city shows, it was been hailed as a huge success.
Sure, the venues they played at didn’t have huge capacities (The Tote holds around 300), but there were plenty of unorganised folks being turned away at the door, leading to speculation that the band’s next jaunt may see them perform in spaces like The Corner Hotel.
Melbourne psychedelic enthusiasts The Grand Rapids probably wet their pants when they realised that they were playing at a sold-out show at The Tote. However, bodies were sparse for their opening set.
A tunnel vortex opened up behind the group, sucking the few listeners’ minds back to 1965 with visions of a dancing Roky Erickson. Their almost endless psychedelic jams never became stale, with the band displaying great control over the ebb and flow of the sonic waves they were riding.
Overloading the senses with optically engrossing visual projections and those eardrum bashing waves placed the openers in stark contrast to Tomorrow’s Tulips.
Singer/guitarist Alex Knost and bassist Ford Archbold form the base of the band, with an unlisted drummer backing them up.
Tomorrow’s Tulips’ music is mellow, and perhaps suited better to the speakers of dimly lit rooms as the occupants sink into their couches.
Knost was swaying on stage with the ubiquitous Sailor Jerrys-branded rum bottle floating around. Their blissed-out stoner balladry dulled the mind into hypnotising submission to the point where thoughts wandered so far that most of the audience didn’t realise when they’d finished a song.
In an attempt to give the show a good kick in the ass, he called out to the audience for someone zany to come do something on stage. Cue tipsy breakdancing girl intermission, which gave the set a bit of a boost.
That said, they left to a cheering audience after Knost burst into life for their encore, seeing him fling himself about the stage and breaking almost every string on his guitar.
Heaving and surely over capacity, the band room became a sauna powered by the collective body heat of over 300 people. Lead singer Brooks Nielsen strutted up to the mic, with his first words involving a bit of cheeky band bashing.
“How was that last band? Talk about amateur hour. I remember my first gig too…”
Nielsen has all the makings of a hardened rock frontman: seemingly egocentric and uninhibited with an irreverent charm that lets him get away with mocking his audience.
Throughout the set, the singer coaxed the crowd between songs, dipped from the band’s five album back catalogue. Even though their latest release Gilded Pleasures is less than a year old, there were only a handful songs played off it, including ‘Hiding Under Covers’, ‘Tell It How It Is’, and standout track ‘Humdrum Blues’.
Their brand of medium paced, reverb-heavy psych rock doesn’t really give itself to moshing and crowd-surfing, but considering the crowd had been waiting for this set for many a year, they weren’t holding anything back.
The Growlers have slugged it out over the past seven years by consistently releasing songs filled with original and authentic material. They didn’t just deserve those sold out shows, they earned them.
