When i got to the pub it was pretty full but with no stage to be seen but I spotted a door saying venue upstairs with the stage times for the support band and the headliners. So I gingerly made my way up the stairs and was greeted by a guy who had my name written down and I was ushered into a tiny room with the smallest stage I have ever seen at one end. There was literally no room to swing a cat and God knows how five guys got on that stage by the Primitai went on. The attendance was obviously not gonna be huge but I saw a few familiar faces from the gigging metal scene as usual. A few people have good taste to support Primitai at least. By the end of the night I would guess the attendance at around 70 or so.
The support band Motherload soon took to the stage and started playing some raspy hard riffed heavy metal. I have never heard of them before but they were ok. They had livewire bearded frontman though of course his beard was not on Guy Miller's level. The Primitai singer has monster fuzz stuck on his chin. Must itch like something rotten.
Anyway I digress - Motherload were quite good and got a good response from the 20 or 30 or so early comers. They had some nice riffage and some cool grooves. Not bad. I didn't buy their cd 'cause I didn't have any money in my pocket but I'll try to check'em out online soon enough.
Primitai got that minuscule stage ready and took their positions and launched straight into the opening track off the amazing new album. The sound was a little loud for that sweaty tiny little room and the bass was the loudest of all and needed toning down. I'm not sure I saw a soundman or mixing desk even but I'm guessing there was one lol! The sound finally settled down and whilst remaining pretty loud was crystal clear.
Frontman Guy Miller is a hell of showman and even though this was a tiny room full of diehards he was giving it everything he had with plenty of forays on to the main floor to sing with the crowd and back onto that tint stage again. I must admit I am not over familiar with the early Primitai material. Whilst they sound ok I have only been blown over by Rise Again I must admit and had them down as an also ran kind of band. I must admit though even their old songs sounded pretty cool so maybe I should go back and try them again as well. The best songs of the night were Pound for Pound which is my favourite song off the new album and Scream When You See Us. My only quibble about the whole night was Guy's vocals getting somewhat buried under an avalanche of guitars and especially bass. If they had toned those down a little and allowed us to hear the vocals a little bit louder and clearer it would have been better still.
Overall a fun cheap night of heavy metal and the band can certainly bring it live. Hopefully next time in 2014 I'll see them on a bigger stage with a better sound system. As for now the album is still in constant rotation on my death deck and will feature highly on my 2013 albums list to be published shortly.
Motherload:
Primitai:
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