Photos courtesy of Damien Twomey.
The last punk show I attended was Trapped Under Ice, in 2011. They played at a local underage venue near my house, and I spent the duration of the gig trying to avoid the angry elbows of fifteen year old boys. It was there, that I made the decision never to attend a punk gig again. My body was aching from the pit I had tried my hardest to steer clear of, my confidence was shaken, and I felt disconnected from a scene I had admired from afar for years.
Four years later, with more height and less animosity towards punk crowds, I decided to make an exception for Melbourne act Deaf Wish‘s album launch. The main reason for doing so, was to catch the band before they blow up. Their rise to the forefront of the scene is inevitable. Just last month, the four-piece signed to Sub Pop, being the first band from Australia to ever do so. Their signing to the label is colossal. Think of it this way: Sub Pop signed acts like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney. More recently, they’re working with artists like Beach House, Mogwai and Clipping. For an independent Melbourne-bred to gain the attention of Sub Pop, let alone sign a contract, is a gargantuan feat. The parallels between the aforementioned bands and Deaf Wish are distinct. They all spent years on the road before making it big, putting in the hard yards before reaching worldwide critical acclaim. Considering Deaf Wish have been a band for the past eight years, it’s no wonder they’re following a similar path to their label-mates past and present.
Apart from their likely blow up, the band’s latest release, Pain, is an incredible album, to say the least. Characterised by the band’s signature schizophrenic styling, the album is more than punk, it is post-punk, it is future punk. It switches from fragile rumblings to breakneck chaos in the blink of an eye. It fuses genres and styles in a way that distinguishes itself from it’s predecessors. It’s not hard to figure out why they were signed to such a renowned record label.
Their album launch was held at Collingwood pub, The Tote, one of the very few music venues still standing that my parents still remember. The excitement was palpable. The night kicked off at 8:30, with the first support act of three, Terry. While the hour was incredibly early, a sizeable audience crowded to enjoy the band’s laid-back, modern rock. The two female vocalists were singing a beautiful harmony when I arrived, only to kick off only a minute later into a heavier statement piece, setting the mood for the night impending, and pleasing the patient crowd.
Female duo Vacuum came next. It was surprising to see an act use synths at The Tote, but that is in no way a bad thing. Vacuum’s sparse lyrics were almost poetic, peppered with percussion and dirty synths. Their sound was reminiscent of the darker techno thats popularising many underground clubs in Melbourne at the moment, however their tracks felt both suited to the club and any local pub. Vacuum is post-punk in it’s finest form, extending past it’s typical form and entering a wholly new territory.
The final opener was TOL. If anyone was still feeling the after-effects of Vacuum’s heavenly gloomy beats, that would be forgotten in moments. TOL kicked things back into gears before minutes, if there was a better opening number for Deaf Wish, I certainly can’t think of them. While Vacuum explored modern, post-punk elements, TOL is punk in it’s finest, vintage form. TOL’s bassist will also be replacing Deaf Wish’s on their upcoming tour of the US – a fitting move. The crowd for TOL filled out in minutes, writhing with newfound energy, ready for the main event.
Deaf Wish are diverse. From their members, to their sound, to the songs that shouldn’t match, but do. The only common factor throughout their set was the crowds reaction, one of absolute ecstasy.
From the moment they took the stage, the vibe felt different. It felt electric, tangible, insane. The band took control of their audience from the moment they hit play, but it felt less authoritarian and more like they were sharing an intimate part of themselves with their audience.
At first glance, vocalist Jensen Thiung looks like a seasoned performer. But that washes away when you hear him sing. His vocals are filled with the angst and the (good) lack of precision of a young artist, they are a perfect match for the frenetic chaos of their instrumentals.
While his vocal chords are a treat, they pale in comparison to Sarah Hardiman’s. While I love female performers and am admittedly biased, she adds something necessary to the mix. In one of the brief breaks between songs, she joking chastised her partner, ‘less of Jensen’s vocals and more of my own please’, I couldn’t agree more. During the first half of the set, the instrumentals almost drowned her out, a painful disappointment. But she soon came into her own, absolutely slaying the stage and the audience that crowded before her. Strong female performers were a recurrence tonight. Three out of the four bands that played were female-led, which is a warm surprise considering the amount of flack the punk scene has received for their treatment of women. I was clearly not the only person who had entered The Tote preoccupied with the thought of female leads, the toilet cubicle had also been graffitied with a scrawling of ‘MORE WOMEN IN PUNK’.
Deaf Wish’s element-melding nature is melding of elements have been noted, not only by me, but by most who have reviewed them. While recorded, it sounds delightful, it is so, so much better live. The panicked pace of their set made you feel apart of something, the quick changes from slow-moving, moody riffs to hectic riffs and screams came together as a whole art-form. I may be romanticising, but if you were there, you would have felt it too.
To a non-listener, punk can understandably just sound like a whole lot of noise. But not Deaf Wish. They have truly created something different, something new, and something notable. This gig was only the launch of Pain, I can’t wait to see what happens for them when it truly takes off.
You can purchase Deaf Wish’s new album, Pain, here.