The weather resembled something of a dark graphic novel and the streets were bare in comparison to any ordinary Friday night in the Valley. Unfortunately the streets imitated the crowd within Woodland, which was a shame for Ohio's kings of lo-fi, Times New Viking who have made their inaugural trip down to play Australia. Following on a widely successful show in Sydney the night before, hopes were high for a repeat performance in which would be an intimate setting for the band on this occasion.
Starting ten minutes late, the much disorganised Meat Thump launched into their first track without even all their instruments plugged in. To the six or so people watching, the band came across with little respect, with even the keyboardist playing with his back to the crowd. For a band at this level, this is not charismatic or mysterious. The young band constantly had time/sound issues and would have benefited from more rehearsal sessions. A number of their tracks had a lot of interesting ideas behind them and if developed and worked upon, this band may find some success within their field. However, tonight a lot of their set issues just seemed due to laziness. Even their adopted sense of style from the likes of Modest Mouse and Neutral Milk Hotel looked more like it came from 'The Hills Have Eyes'.
The young pubic braiders, Cobwebbs are starting to get quite the following with a number of big shows coming up in the near future. From watching them, it is clear why this is so, with the band being really tight and energetic on stage. Vocalist … is lively across the board as he jumped around the stage, into the crowd and in between verses adopting a mean approach to the harmonica. Cobwebbs, equipped with only two guitars, fill the sound of two bands even with their drummer opting for a minimalist four piece kit with no high hat. Finishing with We Are Not Who We Are these young Brisbanites show a lot of potential. They are deserving of tonight’s support slot and are set to be a feature within the Brisbane rock scene.
The venue had picked up in attendance by the time Times New Viking took to the stage, despite still only filling out to about half capacity. With the drum kit reversed for lefty Jared Phillips, the band from the start demand attention but unfortunately the crowd at first seems a little shy, forming a semi-circle between the band and the stage. This space is soon utilised as the fuzzed out synth of No Time, No Hope from the bands 2009 album, Born Again Revisited made the ears bleed as the upbeat sing-along lured more and more to the front of the stage through its charm.
Phillips’s drum kit fell apart mid song which in turn, made a good seat for Stephen Malkmus doppelganger, guitarist Adam Elliott. Who in the following track had his own instrument woes when he broke a string mid song causing the band to pull off a rather impressive improvised piece. Elliott pulled off one of the quickest instrument turn arounds ever and joined the group in mid song. Beth Murphy takes lead vocals as the band launch into the slightly calmer track No Room to Live from album Dancer Equired! In between tracks, Phillips bantered with the crowd asking if there were any questions, to which the main question offered by the crowd was 'what time is it’?
A band like this can really see their lo-fi / shitgaze sounds suffer in the live arena and this has been seen happen to contemporaries Eat Skull, during their performance in Woodland earlier this year. However, Times New Viking seem to generally overcome this, with the walls of distortion and the brutalisation of the drum kit feeling like a slap in the face with a cold wet fish. Teen Drama is as rough around the edges as on record and a joy to see on stage while Move to California also sounds as brash as its VHS recording quality on Born Again Revisited.
By the end of their set Times New Viking had the audience eating out of their hands with the hour of entertainment they provided being a stellar and highlight performance. While the crowd was well under sold, those in attendance can safely say that they got their moneys worth.
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