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Words Anthony Moore.
Photos Sally Townsend Photography.
The Shrine are the perfect good time party band, kick arse tunes, sweet as vibe and three of the coolest dudes that you want to hang out and have a beer with. So when they hit town, the frothies go round!
After a slight shift in line up with Clowns having to unfortunately pull out, Grim Rhythm opened up this mid-week gig and turned my world upside fuckin down! They’re a three-piece instrumental band with some extremely cool grooves. The style and way the riffs are played at first sound like doom, but there’s much more to them. The guitar tone is dirty and it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what it reminds me of but Grim Rhythm have created a world of their own. Some incredible chord changes and bends all over the top of such a kick arse rhythm section. The way they build up a song and without us even knowing it pull it right back and the explosion disappears into nothing, the change is unnoticeable until you’ve sunken deep into the next groove. I highly recommend seeing this band!
Power are next up and if Grim Rhythm’s guitar sound tonight is low and dirty, then theirs is high-end and grating. It’s possibly one of the most obnoxious guitar sounds I’ve ever heard and I love it. Two thirds of the band look like mod drop outs with singer / guitarist Nathan Williams playing his frontman role cranked up to 200%, it’s hard to take my eyes of his mental patient getting his therapy through being on stage look. The band includes members from Soma Coma, Dribble, Gutter Gods and Kromosom and are signed to Cool Death Records.
Horsehunter always put on a massive set, with songs that burrow deep into ones psyche and create such heavy grooves it’s hard not to fall over from swinging your head too far back and forth. There are some amazing young bands getting signed and it’s no surprise that Horsehunter got picked up quickly and since Magnetic Eye Records (NY, USA) released their debut LP, it’s been selling like wildfire. There’s nothing better than seeing a band and feeling the bass rumble up from the floor and slowly work its way up through your body crumbling bones along the way. It’s awesome Horsehunter are doing so well and continually building on what they’ve already created, it’s well deserved.
The Shrine may as well move to Australia. We’ve already adopted them and Aussie punters thrive on the explosive energy these guys throw out from the second they hit the stage until they walk off to chants of “ONE MORE SONG”! Every track is like an encore with numerous builds and extended solos, singer / guitarist Josh Landau would have to be one of the most rockin soloists around. A lot that like to shred solos do it for the sake of just playing way too many notes and can lose excitement and replace it with pace. Landau shreds but it’s always for the power and passion of the song and it sends the room crazy every time. Backed by the seriously kicking rhythm section of Courtland Murphy on bass and Jeff Murray on drums, it’s always a pleasure to see these guys live. I just wish they’d bloody well hurry up and move here already!
They get thrown in with the skate crowd, partly due to Landau himself skating and releasing their own decks, but The Shrine are reminiscent of the good old days when skate music had guts, passion and drive to get you up off your arse after every slam and go and win that damn handrail over. Think Black Flag, Descendents, Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, JFA, old school skate punk mixed with the bands own elements that belted you across the face and got you jumpin around. The Shrine are the present day equivalent and we fuckin love them!
