Project Description

GREENLEAF

@ The Chippo

Live Review

Reviewer: Benjamin Smith

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There are shows that go perfectly to plan from start to finish, they are a flourish of technical precision and a exercise in well-oiled machinery. Greenleaf’s show at Sydney’s Chippo Hotel was not one of those shows. In fact it might have been the opposite of one of those shows. They say every band will at some point have its Spinal Tap moment. On this night its more accurate to say that the venue had its Spinal Tap moment. And then it had another. And another. And another after that. From a technical and organisational standpoint the word disastrous would not delve too far into the realm of exaggeration. From the musicians and performers, there was an admirable attempt to fight through the fog and bring the fucking fuzz. Its probably fair to say that there were varying degrees of success in this regard.

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Kicking things off were local act Hypergiant. In my opinion these guys are a band to watch. I haven’t heard too much about them until now but if tonight’s performance is anything to go by their deep, growling drone is stoner metal for the connoisseur. Their set went well and it seemed like  a solid foundation for the festival of fuzz to come.

Next up Arrowhead took their place on the tiny stage. An unusual combination of 70s sounding psychedelica and 80s aesthetic, particularly on the part of singer Brett Pearl, had the crowd nodding skulls solemnly, as only the stoner metal set can. It all seemed to be going along fiercely until  the sound engineer, deciding they had reached their set’s alloted time limit cut power to Pearl’s mic. Clearly intended as a means of ushering the band offstage, the gesture only served to create the impression of an embarrassing fuck up on the part of the venue’s tech staff. The band took it pretty good naturedly and finished up pretty quickly, but it was not a great moment for metal.

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Third on the bill were two-piece stoner punk favourites Witch Fight. The uncluttered but dangerously dense sound the duo manage to forge is fucking deadly. Alas the sound tech again decided to cut power to the drummer/singer’s set up. This time the band weren’t so inclined to accept the realities of the set time strictures and offered the sound tech the gift of some spontaneously delivered violence preceded by some creatively delivered profanities. My sense of the feeling amongst the crowd was that most people understood Witch Fight’s frustration and didn’t think the reaction was completely unjustified.

Eventually the Swedish riffmasters took to the stage with singer Arvid Jonsson suffering the effects of a nasty fall and performing with a couple of crutches. Its easy to see how it is they’ve earned themselves such a reputation as one of the great examples of the genre. Musically, they are a serious fucking trip and despite technical difficulties associated with leads and pedals the band managed to crush the entire time. There is a tendency to think that the droning nature of the form and the effects often used and the distortion applied so thickly are a veil for limited musicianship. Greenleaf make it their mission to smash that misconception; to obliterate it completely.  At one point Jonsson channels the blues great John Lee Hooker and shows how nimble his vocal talents actually are. For some reason the Swedish have a unique understanding of what stoner metal can hide within its veneer of simplicity and Greenleaf are as perfect an example of this as any. The band would have liked to have given the audience just that extra little dose of THC but unfortunately licensing laws flexed their ugly soulless muscles and the show drew to a premature end. Its probably truth though to say that the show could have gone until 5 am and the Greenleaf devoted would still have needed more. More. More. More.

Thank Christ for the fucking fuzz.

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