Roar Sounds (19/2/2009)

When someone says there are a bunch of bands playing at the Melbourne zoo, a few incredibly witty replies will come. The Animals? The Monkees? The Shitty Beetles? Well, on this summer evening, we were entertained by Tame Impala, Eddy Current Suppression Ring (not that animal-ish, but a full nerd name), and Lions eating Goat Halves (Not actually a band... more of a performance troop).

The zoo was a great venue for tunes... there was good food available, it was BYO, and there were really odd birds flying around. The catch was that it was kind of pricey, however, I won tickets so poo poo to you I guess.

Tame Impala
Still an excellent band that actually do live up to all the hype that surrounds them. The crowd chilled on their picnic blankets as they played all the songs that I know but can't remember which is which. I'm pretty certain Skeleton Tiger is my favourite, as I've mentioned previously, there's a moment when this crazy drum rythm drops in and I totally lose my shit every time. Their EP does it no justice. It was also interesting to note there was a second guitarist on stage... I have no idea who it was or why he was there. Perhaps the 3 have become 4?

Eddy Current Supression Ring
I had briefly seen these guys years ago before they sort of blew up, and to be honest... I thought I had read somewhere that the whole band were disabled. I don't know why I even thought this, I'm wrong, and I apologise to the band, and anybody that was offended when I called them the Steady Eddy Current Supression Ring.

These guys tore the place up. While the crowd was relaxed and comfortable during Tame Impalas set, as soon as ECSR hit the stage everyone was on their feet. They ripped through tune after tune, few which I recognised, and by the time the sun had set... there was the most energetic mosh pit I had seen since year 12 in my High School gym. Crowd surfing, stage diving... awesome. The tunes were really good, proper rock music. Singer Brendan Suppression has a real Aussie twang, which really works with the riffage supplied by the other dudes. If you get a chance to see these guys, take it, I'm annoyed it took me this long to get into them.

I also invite pat to explain what the hell an Eddy Current Suppression Ring is... I looked it up, but Pat knows about that kinda stuff so he'll explain it better. Maybe.
(All I know is: the spiral path an incompressible fluid takes upon passing a solid object is an Eddy (current), like gasses make vortices. This expression is also used to describe an electromagnetic effect in circuits - or rings? - and suppression something that be done to an interference signal. Overall I'd say someone in this band had studied a bit of physics, or has a keen interest in electromagnetics and thus produced an awesome band name!)

Was this review any good? The event was BYO so I had a lot to drink... my review was based on some fuzzy memories.