Fuzzy, lo-fi, garage rock has been making a massive re-emergence lately, with bands from the Californian coast largely fronting this movement. Earlier in the year Australia saw one of the most internationally popular forerunners of the genre, Thee Oh Sees visit our remote shores, and with the popularity of their shows here, one may have speculated that it wouldn’t be long before fellow Californian drifters dragged their weary ankles to the country.
You would not have been wrong, had you had that thought. San Francisco’s Ty Segall is also emerging to be one of the international forerunners of the genre, and this was no secret at his first Melbourne show at The Tote, with the venue not only having to section off the band room, but the whole bar as punters tried their hardest to charm and cheat their way into the sold out show.
Inside, you couldn’t squeeze through the venue without absorbing the sweat and enthusiasm of dozens of sticky and beer-drenched attendees, making it somewhat of an epic adventure to the front of the crowd. On this adventure, you would have encountered people from dozens of different scenes, the gig certainly not being exclusive to the rowdy young garage rockers that you would expect to see there, (if one can in fact distinguish these people).
The adventure was worth the effort when Ty blasted into his set. At the front of the pit stood a dirty handful of rampant followers, who certainly weren’t above getting sweaty throughout the show. The intensity of their dancing (and crowd-surfing) paralleled Ty’s raw and fuzz-filled set perfectly, and set a great tone for the night.
As with many (if not all) of his contemporaries, various songs were seemingly lacking in innovation, never moving from basic chord progressions, and rarely breaking from that American sixties garage psychedelic sound (re: The Sonics, 13th Floor Elevators, etc). That’s kind of the charm of garage rock though, isn’t it? The punters in attendance at The Tote certainly would have said so, all of who were in fits of joy the whole way through the set.
All criticisms of the sudden masses of similar bands around aside, Ty does indeed seem to have something going on that about 90% of them lack. The mass crowds he drew would testify that a genuine intensity lingers throughout his music, and in the mix were a few incredibly well crafted songs bearing a much broader influence than a lot of other similar bands out there.
Unfortunately, a more innovative approach will be needed if Ty Segall wants to be more than just a ‘flavour of the month’ within another ‘flavour of the month’. While currently he can relatively seamlessly graze by, quality over quantity is always key. Yeah, his set was fun to watch, and yeah, the music is pretty good, but how long will it stay that way if every other band seems to be doing the same thing? The novelty of these bands wears off fairly quickly. Despite the music giving the illusion of being raw and rock n’ roll, there was nothing that was actually spontaneous or unpredictable about the gig. People were drunk, people danced, some guy crowd surfed… what else have you got?
– Ella Jackson
