Turnpike @ Mere Noise Meltdown, Step Inn (14.11.2009)

I saw a lot of local bands play over the last weekend. The sounds coming from these bands included cool garage pop (Running Guns), overwrought radio-rock (The Gallant), awesome Bardo Pond-esque drone-pop (Loomer), K-Records-meets-SST sludge (Manic Eyes), affected yet entertaining noise punk (White Cop), the gradual evolution and coming of age of an already pretty great new band (Slug Guts), the farewell of a local phenomenon (Secret Birds' final show), a beautiful yet far too brief set of quiet folk (McKisko), and an experience of a band I missed during their heyday (El Borracho). Most of it was actually pretty damn great, a somewhat rare run of consistently quality music. Some of it was not so good. All of it was worth writing about in some form. However, when the time came there was only one band I really wanted to write about, and they're a band I've written about (and fawned over) before: Turnpike.

Turnpike, for me, are that band you go and see at every opportunity that presents itself, where you stand in the front row with a handful of people and wonder why so many others seem to pay so little attention. They've been one of my favourite bands (note: favourite bands, not just favourite local bands) almost since the first time I saw them. Their music is simultaneously clever, boneheaded, technical, lacking in technique, ear-splitting and aurally orgasmic. Song structures are merely loose recommendations on where a particular piece of music should lead - each player is free to head off on a whim at a moment's notice, or to attempt to play a particular part completely differently to how they've played it previously. And yet the songs are complex, twisting journeys that are unpredictable and yet always hit their marks.

In the last year or so there have been rumours that Turnpike would break up and transform into some other band. Thankfully that plan seems to have been abandoned, but the idea of changing direction somewhat seems to have been retained. New songs have been introduced recently: the first one was introduced a few months ago and is by far the most schizophrenic song the band have yet written. Starting with a bubbling bass riff in 5/4, it eventually builds up and explodes into a rudimentary sort of thrash metal before falling back to where it began. The second new song was unveiled at the Mere Noise Meltdown on Saturday evening, and was in huge contrast to the retro-tinged garage rock performed by most of the other bands on the bill. Featuring more twists and turns than... well, something very twisty and turny, it displayed guitarist Adam King adding a bit of Ian Williams to his usual Steve Albini meets Ash Bowie guitar stylings. Individual notes and melody lines are clearer than they have been for years in Turnpike's music, although still delivered in a highly twisted, clanging fashion. Meanwhile, the rhythm section of Chris Bryant and Tim Evans provide their usual mix of solid anchorage mixed with appropriate levels of chaos, except now with double the number of 90 degree turns in the music and greater flow than ever before. The total effect is mind blowing, throughout the song I found myself being more and more astounded with every newly introduced riff.

Older songs were also performed on the night, both released and unreleased (though familiar to anyone who has seen the band since their debut full length dropped in 2006). They were similarly impressive, and performed as well as I've ever seen them (despite some occasional problem with guitar leads being disconnected due to the Step Inn Front Bar's limited stage space). Although the set was a short one at only five songs, it was packed to the brim of explosive, exciting music. Turnpike may well fall within the confines of 'math rock', but they also display a vitality and energy that bands in that genre often lack, who instead getting lost in studiousness and the search for perfection in performance. Turnpike dismiss that aspect of the genre, and hence are able to comfortably fit into a night such as the Mere Noise Meltdown, where attitude and perceived authenticity reign supreme.

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Turnpike, Seaplane, Undead Apes @ 4zzz Carpark (15.08.09)

4zzz's Radiothon has come and gone, so I hope that those of you who weren't subscribers prior to this past week have now changed that. In any case, the Zeds started off their yearly subscription drive last Saturday with an afternoon show in their carpark on St Paul's Terrace, something that was relatively common a few years back and has recently returned as a semi-regular event. The Porridge program was responsible for this particular show, and so we had three loud indie-rock bands (of various sub-types) playing in the winter sun.

Local punk rock frankenstein Undead Apes started things off. The band consists of members of Eat Laser Scumbag, Sekiden, Dick Nasty and Gazoonga Attack, and Undead Apes don't really stray too far from what you would imagine a band featuring such musicians would sound like: it's loud, up-tempo, catchy punk (more of the garagey 'pop-' variety than the 'hardcore-'). Although they've only been around for a relatively small amount of time, they're a pretty tight little outfit - again, as you'd expect given their lineage. Aside from one mix up due to attempting to play a song that was only written a day or two before the show, every song was nailed down tight, coming across with great force. I'm struggling to think of anything substantial to really say about them, other than if you like the previously mentioned bands (or just punk rock in general) then you'd be well advised to check them out.

Seeing as Seaplane's co-frontman Stirling Bartlam hosts the Porridge show, it was no surprise to see his own band on the lineup. They're a fine act so I doubt many people had any complaints. Having gone through a lineup change fairly recently (drummer Conwae Burrell being replaced by Nova Scotia frontman Scotty Brique), it's been reassuring to see that if anything the band has become even tighter. Scott is a louder and slightly more accomplished drummer than Conwae, although not to such a degree that Burrell's trademark roughness has been eliminated. Brique provides the perfect middle ground for the band - sturdy enough to provide a solid base from the two guitarists to throw their signature squall over, but loose enough to continue the previous incarnation's character. This show was amongst their better, with all members being able to stretch out at full volume with a supportive and interested crowd (indeed, Dale Peachey seemed quite incredulous that audience members kept asking him to turn up for once). Most of the set was made up of tracks from their recent 12", such as The Soiree, Plastic Jesus and Feather, with a few older favourites added to mix things up.

It's no secret that Turnpike are one of my very favourite Brisbane bands. If you're at all inclined towards their brand of no-wave/math-rock noise then it's a rare thing to witness a bad Turnpike show (indeed, I can't actually remember ever seeing one, though I'm sure it must have happened at some stage... probably). Although they've been playing a set of largely unreleased songs ever since the arrival of their Humans Find Patterns album a few years back (with the only songs to appear since 2007 being 'Selling, This Century' from their split with Del Toro, and 'Easy Choices For Bad People' from Stranded), it seems that the band has decided to start moving onto new areas regardless. Hence we are treated to a lengthy new song, with the promise of more to come. The new track features drummer Chris tweaking electronic noises for the first third of the song, while Tim plays a continuous 5/4 riff on bass and Adam noodles away on guitar. It's like some sort of minimalist version of Tortoise. Eventually the guitar and bass meld together, the drums enter and things work themselves up to a moderate level of 'rock', before everything explodes into something that can only likened to thrash metal. After a comparatively small amount of ear-shredding the songs calms back down and returns to its origin. It's definitely new territory for the band, and represents another shift in their sound (something that seems to happen every year or two). It will be interesting to see if they continue this new, more abstract direction with their other new material. Hopefully we'll see a new release from these guys in the near future.

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Eat Laser Scumbag, Violent Soho, Dick Nasty, Turnpike, No Anchor @ Step Inn (24.10.08)

On paper this looks like some sort of dream local lineup... and that's pretty much how it was in actuality - two of Brisbane best noise-rock bands (Turnpike and No Anchor), two of its most respected punk acts (Dick Nasty and ELS) and the city's premiere early 90s revivalists. What more could any volume loving music fan ask for in a local show?

At the start of the night a friend commented that any one of the five bands on the bill could have been headliner and noone would have complained. As it was, No Anchor were the 'unlucky' band who were given the job of opening the evening. At about 8:30PM, with the venue still largely empty, No Anchor took to the stage and began their aural bombardment of the audience. The set contained a mere three songs yet went for around 30minutes - the opening song was a comparatively laid back (for No Anchor) number that sounded somewhat like Kyuss jamming on a multitude of variations of the one riff for 10minutes, the middle track was a more dynamic number with some fantastic riffs, and the closer was probably the heaviest song the band have yet created (which means it's damn heavy). None of the songs were from the band's debut Fire Flood And Acid Mud from a few months back; instead, all three will be featured on a soon to be recorded album set for release in the new year (full disclosure: I recorded No Anchor's debut album and will be doing the same for their next... and damn if I'm not super excited about hearing those songs over and over for a few days).

On the flipside, not everyone seemed so impressed by No Anchor - while the majority of the crowd were totally into the band's crushingly heavy stoner/doom rock, I did see one audience member turn to his friend at the end of the set and remark 'I just don't get it' to his friend.

By the end of No Anchor's set the crowd was starting to swell, and by the time Turnpike hit the stage the room was nicely filled. I'm sure there were a number of people in the audience who thought that Turnpike could have easily headlined this show, and the band put on a performance that I'm sure had a few more people thinking this by the end of their set. I had seen the band play a smaller show the previous week at Club Russia (with Mr Maps), and that show was one of the better that I've seen from Turnpike. Friday's was even better. As is usually the case in the band's sets recently, most of the material was unreleased - I think there was 'Selling This Century' from their split with Del Toro and 'Do The Broken' from Humans Find Patterns, with nothing from prior to that. It didn't really matter, the new songs have been in their sets for long enough that they've become quite familiar to most fans, and the band plays them with such ferocious energy that it wouldn't matter if noone had ever heard them before. Adam King plays with such energy and intensity that it seems a wonder that he's able to fret a single chord, such is the way that his body thrashes around on stage - by the end of the set there would not have been a single square inch of his shirt that wasn't saturated with sweat. Even in the last song, where the strap kept coming off his SG, he barely missed a beat.

Dick Nasty are not a band that I would profess to having an intimate knowledge of - I've seen them around town quite a number of times over the years (what regular indie/punk gig-goer in Brisbane hasn't?) but I don't own any releases of theirs. That said, they're a hugely solid punk band with few peers in this city. Unlike the previous bands, who both preferred extending their songs well past the 6minute mark (I think there had been a total of seven songs performed between the two bands prior), Dick Nasty's set consisted of track after track of short, concise and precisely played punk rock. With two guitarist/singers flanking the supremely tight rhythm section, Dick Nasty blasted through their set like a finely tuned machine (with just the right amount of chaos thrown into the mix).

Violent Soho were the 'name' band of the evening, and this showed in the packed crowd who stood around to watch (though it wasn't long before people were doing much more than merely standing around, with things escalating to a bit of crowd surfing by the end of the set). I have to admit that I don't hold the band in the same esteem as a lot of other local music fans, but there are two things that are fairly inarguable: 1) they can write a damn fine song around an early 90s guitar riff, and 2) they put on a pretty fantastic show. The band pulled out the majority of their crowd-pleasers: 'Jesus Stole My Girlfriend', 'Muscle Junkie', their cover of God's 'My Pal', 'My Generation' (not The Who song), 'Son of Sam'... actually, they do have quite a number of good songs, don't they?

One other notable thing about their set: it was heart-warming (in a tough, masculine way) to see the band so clearly appreciative of the people who have been supportive of them through their four year existence, with many thanks going out to the other bands on the bill, the crowd, the venue, and Brisbane music supporters in general. This was best exemplified when the band leapt (quite literally) to the defense of some of their friends who were being ejected from the venue for being excessively rowdy (I guess). While the lead guitarist and bassist left the stage for a few minutes to negotiate with the bouncers and venue staff, the drummer and singer were left to entertain the crowd with the opening riff of 'Jesus Stole My Girlfriend' (I *think*) repeated ad infinitum. Eventually the rest of the band returned with the news that everything had been sorted out and that the perhaps overly enthusiastic audience members had been let back in. I can't think of another time where bouncers have changed their mind over such an incident, so kudos to both sides, and extra kudos to Violent Soho for not being tempted to have a go at the bouncers from the stage after the incident.

Eat Laser Scumbag were a last-minute addition to the lineup, with half the band coming up from Melbourne in order to play the show. Although the members Eat Laser were operating on various degrees of lack of sleep and a limited amount of rehearsal, for the most part you wouldn't have picked it. They sounded like they pretty much always did - lively punk rock that's a bit rough around the edges delivered by four guys who seem to be having a hell of a lot of fun on stage. Bassist Adam Scott provided some humour to procedings after a request came to from the audience for the removal of various clothing items from the band, in the end being the recipient of one young lady's underwear (hi Jess!). Even though they weren't the 'biggest' of the bands to play on the night, they were the perfect way to end things - songs that were energetic enough to capture people's attention even as the time crept towards 1am, a relaxed and fun vibe, and the return of one of Brisbane more loved groups.

I can't think of the last time I saw this many local bands putting on such great performances in the one evening. Luckily for you, you can either relive the evening (if you were there) or experience it for the first time (if you weren't) by heading over to Turn It Up To 10 and downloading the audience recordings of all five sets. Thanks Brendan!

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Nova Scotia, The Sips, Turnpike @ Rosie's Bar (27.6.08)

Turnpike are fucking great band. They've consistently been my favourite local band since about the 3rd time I saw them. Their energy in a live setting can't be beaten, and they have a synergy between band members that can't be duplicated without having played together as a unit for a decade. Throw in some quality (if sporadic) releases over the course of their existence and you have something truly special.

That said, Turnpike started off a bit slowly on this particular occasion. The first song or two didn't really have that knife-edge energy that the band usually effortlessly project, and it wasn't until Adam turned his guitar way up that things started to click into place. The set consisted of about 50% new songs and 50% from their newer releases ('Selling This Century' from the Del Toro split, 'Do The Broken' and 'xxxxxx' from Humans Find Patterns), and if the rumours of Turnpike's impending demise turn out to be true I pray to God that they record and release the most recent batch of songs before bringing it all to an end.

I haven't seen The Sips in a really long time (partly due to the fact that their shows are somewhat few and far between these days). Back when I last saw them they had a country-pop influence that could occasionally be glimpsed in between the rest of the Ramones-esque punk rock. It would seem that that aspect of their sound has fallen by the wayside (or at least it wasn't evident at this show), because The Sips pretty much didn't let up the intensity for the entirety of their set. That's not really a bad thing, as their three-chord pop-punk songs are catchy enough on their own. The band tore through their beer-soaked set at maximum volume and pace before finishing with a hail of feedback and noise.

In their short lifetime Nova Scotia have become one of my favourite local bands. They combine pretty much everything you could want from an unashamedly straight-up indie-rock band: catchy melodies, volume, twisting three-guitar attacks, pop songs set against distortion and feedback. And powerdrills, can't forget the powerdrills. They've already released two great EPs which have displayed an admirable level of growth for such a new band, so one would hope that an album is not too far away. Playing their first show for quite a few months (after having pesky things like travelling and marriage get in the way), the band was actually super tight. I was expecting something a little more raw and sloppy, but that's not at all what I got. Their set finished impressively with the slow-burning title-track from their Maritime Disasters EP, rising up to a noisy crescendo before riding out on the songs' main riff.

Deaf Wish played last. They had lots of energy. They're from Melbourne, so that's all I'm going to write.

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Favourite Brisbane Bands - Cam's Top 5

Recently we here at Before Hollywood were requested to list our favourite Brisbane bands by a local music-related company. Since we are nothing if not beholden to the machinations of the music industry, we graciously complied. Therefore, let me present to you my 5 favourite current Brisbane bands (Gav's will be forthcoming).

Note: this is not an 'of-all-time' list, I'm just talking of bands who are releasing stuff right now. Also, even though Ed Kuepper, Robert Forster etc are still releasing music, I thought it kind of went against the focus of BH to list them here, since they don't really need any assistance from me.

Turnpike:
Is there a better band in existence than Turnpike? If I'm being objective then the answer is probably yes, but if I let myself give in to sentimentalism then the answer is a hearty 'NO!'. They're the sort of band who seem to inspire fanaticism in a percentage of people who chance across them, but equally seem to be fated to remain on the relative fringes of the more 'successful' aspects of the Brisbane music 'scene'. I think the band are perfectly ok with this, though.

I think that the thing about Turnpike that equally turns some people off and lures others in is the ugliness to their music. Adam's guitar verges on white noise a lot of the time, the music regularly goes through 90 degree turns to take you somewhere unexpected, and the band walks this weird line between being completely shambolic and incredibly tight - somehow they manage to be both at the same time. But when you get past that there's also a strange sort of beauty in there; you realise that there are actual melodies in the haze of distortion and screaming, that some of the time they're playing a fractured form of pop music, that the jarring transitions actually make perfect sense, and that the push and pull between the three players is what makes the band so thrilling - there's that constant sense that everything could fall apart, or that something completely amazing could be about to happen. Sometimes you get the former, but more often it's the latter.

The Rational Academy:
It's been a long time coming, but The Rat Acad are finally going to be releasing their debut album in a the next few weeks. I remember seeing my first (the first?) RA show back in the little room near the entrance of 610 back in 2004. I was super excited about the band, as it featured members of the recently disbanded Autumn Giants, Delpino and Iron On. It was a Brisbane indie-rock supergroup, and the descriptions I'd heard of the band sounded fantastic. For me, they lived up to those expectations. Through the years (and countless drummers, plus the recent addition of bass and occasional flourishes of live glitchy laptop... stuff) they've retained their core sound of distorted, down-tuned guitars married to loud drums and relatively meek vocals, creating a dreamy pop soundscape. They've also managed to move into some interesting new territory, especially on record (see: the cut-up folk of their debut EP '(drums)', as well as the synth-pop of '2004' from the upcoming full-length 'a heart against your own').

Ambitious Lovers:
Last Thursday the Ambitious Lovers returned to performing live, and it was a heart-warming thing to witness. While the lineup has changed, the core vibe has remained the same: mostly beautiful but occasionally cathartically ragged ukelele underneath boy-girl vocals, with 'junkyard' percussion accompaniments (ie: drums made out of milk crates, wine glasses, kitchen utensils, etc). Where it can sometimes seem as though most local bands are just trying to rip off their favourite international acts, Ambitious Lovers seem to be able to effortlessly carve out their own unique sound and feel, even though they may be fairly comfortably lumped in with the whole 'freak folk' thing. Equally, they don't ever come across as being willfully difficult - there is always a beautifully written song at the core of even their most wayward moments. And when they do 'pretty'... well, they do it like noone else in town, with an authenticity that convinces.

Nova Scotia:
They're by far the newest band on this list, having only existed for a matter of months, but after (self-) releasing two pretty amazing indie-rock/pop EPs and playing a handful of quality shows they've convinced me that they're a band to love. And really, with the pedigree behind the members of the band Nova Scotia was always going to be at least 'pretty good'. Luckily for us, they've pretty much surpassed all of their previous groups - they've somehow managed to take many of the best aspects of those bands and then add in new elements to take the whole thing further.

Iron On:
My review of Iron On's recent release 'The Verse' may not have exactly been glowing, but make no mistake: Iron On are a really good band (in fact I'm listening to the EP right now and liking it a lot more... though the things that I didn't like about it before still grate on me). They've been releasing quality music and playing quality shows for too long to be discounted, either by any perceived 'stagnation' in the band or purely because they've been around for so long that they start being written off due to their ubiquity in the 'scene' or, even worse, the fickle nature of the indie rock community. Iron On's sense of pop-songcraft is strong, and experience has polished it to the nth degree. The only question is whether or not they can continue to release music without things getting stale. We'll all find out later in the year, when they release their sophomore album. I'm hoping they release the sort of album that they've shown they have the potential to make.


Special mentions: Nightcrash (too recently disbanded), Scul Hazzards (too recently relocated), Rialto Decibel Choir (too new), Bloon (too 'reportedly finished' and too 'plays once in a blue moon', but still awesome), Shiver Like Timber, a whole host of others.

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Review: Turnpike / Del Toro Split EP

This particular EP has been out for a while now, but since there are still some copies floating around (and I haven't written anything substantial in about 2 weeks) I thought that I would finally put together a write-up for it. So here it is.

A bit over a year ago local go-getters 'Del Toro' won the 4zzz Radiothon band prize, said prize entailing a weekend's recording at Airlock Studios. Being the community minded people that they are, Del Toro invited Brisbane indie-noise-rock stalwarts 'Turnpike' to join them in this endeavour, the idea being to released a Split EP featuring one song from each band. Strangely enough, that's exactly what ended up being released.

Side 1 (or Track 1, since it's a CDR release as opposed to the original idea of releasing a 7") belongs to Del Toro's track 'Hinge & Pluck'. It's vintage Del Toro (or as vintage as you can get from a band that hasn't yet released an album... although that's coming next year, courtesy of one Mr Casey Rice). It's Ennio Morricone as played by Love of Diagrams. There's that trebly-as-fuck guitar tone, all delay and wah and washes of distortion. There's the awesome bass part that pretty much drives the song. There's the rock solid drumming that slithers between the immovable bass and the piercing guitar. Yep, Del Toro. Actually, there is one notable aspect to this song which differentiates it from every other one of the band's tracks: 'Hinge & Pluck' is... well, it's sexy. It will make you want to shake your post-rocking booty. Or at least nod your head while sitting in a darkened corner with your arms folded.

Where Del Toro's offering will make you want to get your skank on like some dread-locked hippy, Turnpike's 'Selling, This Century' is more likely to get you to do some emo-kid thrash-moshing*, complete with windmill kicks, etc. Any regular readers may know that Turnpike are pretty much my favourite Brisbane band, and this track is a pretty good example of why. The song starts with a classic Turnpike riff, alternating between (relatively) subdued verses and all-out choruses that essentially utilise the same riff. About one third of the way through the song the band goes into a breakdown that leads to a tense buildup-and-windown-again, taking us to the final third. At this point the band kicks into top gear, with the noisey riffing and screams being joined by a delightfully dissonant piano. Adam King is one of the most energetic guitarists I've ever heard/seen, and the rhythm section behind him is able to give him the base that he requires to go off and let rip with his dissonant math-rock shredding (and similar shredding of his vocal chords). Both bands on this release really seem to rely on their bassists to keep the song rooted, with the guitarists riffing over the top while the drummers find some sort of middle ground between the two.

This EP was recorded by local engineer Emerson, who also recorded The Butcher Birds' EP. While I was somewhat critical of the sound of that recording in my review of it, I think that Emerson's slick style actually works a bit better with these two bands. Del Toro have possibly the thinnest guitar sound in history, paired with one of the thickest bass sounds - Emerson makes the two components work together better than in any of the band's previous recording, while giving the drums a welcome step up in power. Turnpike, on the other hand, have one of the most chaotic sounds around, with the guitar tone approaching white noise at times. The extra sheen that this recording gives the band suits them well, as it reins in their noisier elements while still capturing their crazy energy, making the band sound tighter than ever. I don't quite think that it equals Bryce Moorhead's recording of their Not Lost EP (still my favourite sounding Brisbane release, and probably Turnpike's high-water mark), but Turnpike's sound has changed a bit since then, with a much greater emphasis on repetition and noise.


* yes, at 24 I am completely out of touch with 'youth culture'.

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Turnpike & Del Toro Split EP Launch with Mass Migration @ Fat Louies (3.8.07)

This was an 'unmissable gig' for me. Why? My favourite Brisbane band, Turnpike, was launching a new release after a bit of an absence from the live scene. Furthermore, the release was a split EP with the fine Del Toro. Lastly, the show was at the somewhat revamped Fat Louie's, who have recently replaced their old PA and cleaned up their live music area, so I was keen to see how things had improved.

So, we'll start with the last point and make our way back to the first. The new setup at Fat Louie's isn't hugely different, the main difference being that the stage and old carpet has been removed, leaving a polished wooden floor that puts the band and audience at the same height. Personally I like having the band on the same level (though I imagine it might be a pain at a much busier gig), and the wooden floor gives the venue a more sophisticated look (not too sophisticated, mind you - this is still a relatively DIY venue). I wasn't really able to judge the improvement in the PA, since two of the three acts were instrumental guitar bands.

Now to the bands. First up was Mass Migration, a band that I've seen twice previously. Ultimately, they're a fairly traditional post-rock band - pretty guitar bits transforming into big riffs, massive bass chords and crashing drums, ebows, the occasional piano-based song, no vocals. If you don't know my views on post-rock (and why would you?), have a quick read of this gig review. My thoughts on Mass Migration are pretty much the same as my thoughts on most bands who play that Mogwai-esque, guitar-based, crescendoing post-rock; it's enjoyable while I'm listening to it, but doesn't really satisfy in the long-term and soon starts to sound kind of one-dimensional and stale. That said, there are a lot of people who are still really into that sound, and for those people Mass Migration will most likely be an enjoyable band to listen to. I must admit that I did enjoy their set, even moreso than I have on previous occasions.

Del Toro were next. I suppose that Del Toro are also a 'post-rock' band, but they're somewhat unlike any other such band that I can think of. Sure there are big riffs and nimble guitar lines in equal number, and the band utilise repetition and buildups to provide a big musical payoff, but to my ears their sound owes a lot to that other 'post-' genre, post-punk. I've always thought that they sound like Love Of Diagram's rhythm section backing a mexican mariachi-band guitarist who has fallen in love with delay and flanger pedals. The drums are more cutting than crashing, the bass more driving than crushing, and the guitar more fluid than airy.

With that said, at recent Del Toro shows I'd begun to think that the band was turning into a one-trick pony. Half the time I have been unable to tell if the song I was hearing was new or old. When they begun their first song on Friday my first thought was 'here we go, another Del Toro song that sounds like every other Del Toro song'. But in the second song things were different - the bass was lighter, and the song didn't so much break out into a wall of noise as much as gradually and gracefully unravel and then return from where it came. Over the course of the set the band unveiled many songs that somewhat surprised me in one way or another. Some of the songs were even *gasp*... happy! Hell, some of them could even have been mistaken for some sort of post-rockified pop songs (if they had some sort of vocal over the top). I was pleased to see that the band have begun to widen their range.

When Del Toro were done it was time for the main event, as far as I was concerned (although I guess that other people didn't agree, as the venue emptied out fairly considerably - it was approaching midnight, though). Turnpike ripped into their music right from the start, singer/guitarist Adam King being drenched in sweat before the end of the first song. That's pretty much why I love the band - I've never seen them be any less than completely into the music they're playing, and they always put out a huge amount of energy from onstage. Friday was no different, though the band were admittedly somewhat under-rehearsed (as evidenced by the aborted second song... although they replayed it much more successfully towards the end of the set). To be honest, they seemed to have their regular mix of crazy tightness mixed with an endearing looseness - the band members seemed to be able to read each other minds in terms of moving the songs through their different sections. As a fellow audience member said after the show, if you think you can play guitar, after watching Adam you'll realise how boring your parts are. Similarly, if you think your band has chemistry, after seeing Turnpike you'll realise you have years of playing to reach their level. The way that Tim anchors the band on bass while Adam rips out dissonant riffs and squealing lead lines, with Chris moving somewhere between the two on drums. It wasn't the best ever Turnpike show I've seen, but it was a damn good one, and considering they haven't played all that much in recent months, that made it very satisfying.

Turnpike's set was also the first chance to hear the venue's new PA in action. Despite some feedback issues (which were mostly sorted by the second half of the set), the sound seemed pretty good, with Adam's vocals being as loud in the mix as I've ever heard them (no mean feat, seeing as he has a tendency to shake his head from side to side from about a foot away from the microphone). It will be interesting to see how the new sound system handles a more complex setup than those on show this particular evening.

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