These summer night gigs are getting just a bit much as far as sweltering humidity goes, it’s positively draining when you’re sweating before the gig even kicks off. No amount of heat or humidity or anything short of an apocalypse was going to keep me away from The Woolly Mammoth on Fortitude Valley’s iconic Ann Street.
Not when the recently passed lockout laws are looming and every night of unimpeded live music until they’re here should be savoured. And especially not when a virtuoso musician like Albert Hammond Jr., known most commonly for his role as part of the seminal New York City garage rock revival group The Strokes, is in town tonight, albeit in a solo capacity on his Momentary Masters tour in support of his latest record.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT68FS3YbQ4
The psychedelic Gunns from Perth are in support tonight, playing to a decent early crowd who are well into it. They’re incredibly pleasant to listen to, radiating warm and breezy vibes of a much surfier pre-Currents Tame Impala. Songs like The Fool and She’s A Rainbow are totally mesmerising outer space rockers and the Woolly Mammoth sound system is more than up to the task of unpacking these and the rest of their songs from record to stage. It’s a wonderful way to catch a breath and enjoy the welcome indoors cool after sweating all the way here.
Having just launched their She’s A Rainbow EP with shows at the Oxford Art Factory in Sydney and Shebeen in Melbourne, expect some big things from Gunns in the very near future as their career hits liftoff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Puoj-Y-Nmok
It’s a little wait until the man of the hour hits the stage, which is more than enough time for the crowd to swell. Having been hanging out for a tour or a festival appearance in Australia by The Strokes since their last here at the Splendour In The Grass of 2010, a solo tour by Albert Hammond Jr. is more than welcome.
To say that the crowd here tonight are only in attendance because of Albert’s Strokes proximity though would be to do the man and his indelibly impressive catalogue of solo work a great disservice though. 2016 marks the 10th year since Albert Hammond Jr. stepped out on his own and forged a path as a solo artist, and everything he has released since Yours To Keep a decade ago has more than stood up on its own.
A great deal of this is owed to the music coursing through his veins. The son of the senior Albert Hammond, an enduring musical icon from as far back as the 70s, as well as his own musical training at New York’s Tisch School of Arts that provided one of the backdrops for the formation of The Strokes, Albert Hammond Jr. is a true professional, a musical lifer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY0gW4x7D5U
Clad in all white that throws all the way back to the stunning You Only Live Once music video, Hammond Jr. bounds onstage and wastes no time ripping in. It’s an enthralling set, initially Hammond eschews the guitar in favour of straight frontman duties, but as soon as he picks it up and rips into the solo from Rude Customer my jaw is on the floor at just how good he is. It’s an increasingly rare thing for a modern guitar player to have such an unmistakeable sound but Hammond’s is just timeless and brings back an absolute torrent of nostalgia.
The setlist encompasses his three albums and intervening AHJ EP with a fairly even spread. 101 from debut Yours To Keep gets an early run, as does GfC from 2008’s ¿Cómo Te Llama?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpuB3ZlhQ3g
It’s Momentary Masters that quite rightly gets worked over the most tonight though, the majority of the record getting its live treatment. A soaring Losing Touch, a frenetic Caught By My Shadow, Hammond Jr.’s absolutely stellar guitar work continuing to shine through, particularly on songs like Touché and one of the set standouts in Drunched In Crumbs. His band are no slouches either, all more than capable of keeping up with Hammond Jr., and the chemistry between them all absolutely tangible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt6U8nEmXWU
Aside from maybe two or three tracks the LP is scattered over the set almost in its entirety and is welcomed warmly by the crowd. Albert Hammond Jr. sings and performs just as adeptly and entertainingly as a frontman as he does a lead guitarist, the band having a lot of fun mid-set with a well-timed cover of The Misfits‘ Last Caress that saw the teenager in me almost burst through my chest, Alien-style.
Side Boob chugs along like a midnight train, In Transit has the crowd bopping along, as does the positively contagious Born Slippy, the opening track on Momentary Masters. It’s the kind of song that leeches itself to your auditory cortex and refuses to let go for days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSJvqciulr4
The entire set feels lightning quick but runs for well over an exhilarating hour. As he’s wrapping up his encore, Hammond Jr. and the band play what I swear sounds like the opening riff of The Strokes classic Razorblade. It all happens so fast that it barely registers and I’m not even sure now that they did play it, but the way my heart leapt into my throat at the time seemed like a giveaway. They cut it off abruptly though and exit the stage after thanking us all.
Were we just trolled by Albert Hammond Jr.???
It was a fantastic show nonetheless. When I interviewed Albert Hammond Jr. last year, he promised that there would be a lot of surprised people at his shows who didn’t realise they would have such a good time. I think all of us in attendance that night can attest to that, we all knew we were in for a good show, but we probably didn’t realise it would be that good. Many artists who branch out solo from successful bands aren’t able to stand on their own next to the lofty standards of the original band, Hammond Jr. and his solo band aren’t just standing tall on their own, they’re smashing it out of the park.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOJUsAPbk3s
In that same interview he also said he wanted his solo band to be as huge as they can possibly be. With his comeback to solo music at full steam right now it’s definitely possible, Momentary Masters up there with his best work to date and his quirky individual twists on The Strokes original New York garage sound provides a unique and refreshing presence in a world where Strokes shows and material are coming much fewer and further between.
But whether it is with The Strokes (they’ve got a few American and European festival dates ahead so fingers crossed) or on his own again, there’s a few hundred lucky people in Brisbane tonight hoping Albert Hammond Jr. won’t be a stranger for long.
The Strokes’ guitarist (and solo artist) Albert Hammond Jr got himself into a bit of a fight when his wife was pickpocketed over the weekend. When a group of three men stole her wallet and green card, Hammond turned around and began to throw punches. One man ran away, another was hit by Hammond.
“Oh wow, I did get angry, didn’t I?” he said as he watched the security footage of the incident. The footage was then uploaded to Snapchat for his fans’ viewing pleasure. As Hammond said, it was pretty intense. See for yourself here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2fjaTMZWb8
You’re probably wondering if he got the goods back. The answer is, yes he did.
https://twitter.com/alberthammondjr/status/675399644625571841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
According to Stereogum, the band were in Mexico to play a festival called Live Out Monterrey on Saturday. They also stopped by a studio to record and rehearse. Is there some new music on the way?
All we know is, don’t mess with their guitarist or you might end up on his Snapchat story.
Albert Hammond Jr will be travelling down under in February to perform his solo material, although we’re still waiting on a new release – his last full length was back in 2013. You can read our recent interview with him here, and check all the dates below.
Tues, 16th February 2016 – The Gov, Adelaide (18+) (TICKETS)
Wed, 17th February 2016 – Woolly Mammoth, Brisbane (18+) (TICKETS)
Fri, 19th February 2016 – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney (18+) (TICKETS)
Sat, 20th February 2016 – Mountain Sounds Festival, Mount Penang Parklands, Kariong, NSW (TICKETS)
Sun, 21st February – Corner Hotel, Melbourne (18+) (TICKETS)
It’s been seven long years since Albert Hammond Jr., guitarist for seminal New York City rock band The Strokes, has put out a full album under his own moniker (that was Come Te Llama all the way back in 2008) and two since he first got back into writing and recording his own work with the AHJ EP in 2013. This year saw the release of his third LP, Momentary Masters, an album Hammond Jr. wasn’t sure would ever get made but one that has brought him storming back into the hearts and minds of his many fans.
He took some time out of his ongoing mammoth tour of the United States to have a chat to us about the album and his forthcoming tour of Australia, including a set at New South Wales’ stunning Mountain Sounds festival on the Central Coast, his first time back in the country since The Strokes played Splendour In The Grass in 2010 and his very first time here as a solo artist.
Hey Albert, how are you doing?
I’m good! How are you?
Yeah I’m getting there. Where in the world do we find you at the moment?
I just got home to New York but I’m leaving tomorrow to LA. So just New York right now.
Not a lot of rest time on this tour I see, how’s that going?
Oh it’s amazing. We just finished an eight week tour of America and in the middle of that there was a week in Japan. Going really well.
Great to hear. Well I’ll jump in to what’s the biggest news for you right now, which is the new album that you’re currently taking on tour Momentary Masters. It’s your first album since Como Te Llama back in 2008. Can you tell us, seven years on from that record, how different it was for you to be back in the studio writing and recording your own work?
In some ways it’s… I guess I knew it, so it’s not really like anything has changed like that. I guess I really felt it on the EP. After rehab I didn’t write music for a while, not because I didn’t want to, I just didn’t really have the energy to do too much. So the EP kind of brought me back and I did a tour for that and the band came from that and so when I went in to do this with a band, I mean I wasn’t as confident as I feel now but I was definitely on the way. I was excited, I was really excited. That’s probably the best way to put it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt6U8nEmXWU
Is there any extra pressure on you given that this is work you’re putting out under your own name?
No. I mean there’s pressure in anything that you do that you like, just the natural pressure of just wanting to be great. I mean, you’ve looked up to all these people who you think are great and you’re just trying to get there, watching yourself make mistakes and maybe try to reach some things. There’s pressure but nothing that you wouldn’t expect when you’re trying to make it in the music business.
(Laughs) If I didn’t want pressure I should have done something else.
You mentioned just before you didn’t write anything for a while and you were feeling a bit flat and I know I read that there was a period of time there where you weren’t all that sure that this record would be made. How did you overcome that?
Well that wasn’t really this record, the EP kind of brought all that forward. Actually One Way Trigger (from The Strokes last album Comedown Machine) was the first song I wrote again and it brought me back and made me excited and I kind of held onto it to work on it and didn’t want to show anyone because I was kinda like ‘Oh I feel like I’m back for me but maybe I don’t really want to show anyone’ in case they didn’t like it and then it would be back to the drawing board for me.
So it finally happened and it came out on The Strokes record and we didn’t tour so I started working on some stuff that I had and then this EP came out, sort of this mini record and it kind of felt cool to me, so different and fun, and so it went from there, it just kept on growing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reifFcUoTKw
With that floodgate of creativity that you opened, is there some stuff there that didn’t make the album that you might revisit?
Yeah we had recorded these two other songs but I just didn’t get to put any singing on them but I was going through the songs and when I reached ten I thought it just feels like a record so let’s stop going through all this stuff. I don’t know, maybe I’ll look at them later and they could be fun little things for when you put out a record, I don’t know what you call it, like B-sides? I don’t know if that really makes sense.
Also yeah I have a bunch of new ones that I want to try so I don’t know, we have a lot of stuff to go through.
Do you think that Momentary Masters might have been a gateway to more frequent output from you?
Well I want to make it on my own in the music business so I can’t just sit back and relax. There’s this perception of me that I’m just doing this for me because there’s nothing better to do but I always wanted to have a career in it because I feel like I can do it and I want to be an entertainer. So I’m just trying to do that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSJvqciulr4
And how are the songs that you’ve come up with now translating from the studio to the live stage?
Yeah that’s one of the best parts of doing both things, doing the recording and then going to play live and then going back to record. They kind of feed each other with what you want to make. You know because there’s certain things that you get tired of but it was everything that I was missing in this record. So we play between eight and nine of the new songs every night and the setlist is really fun and amazing.
I ask because you’re about to come out to Australia for your own headline tour.
I am!
The first time you’ve been out here since you were with The Strokes for Splendour In The Grass back in 2010 and I don’t think you’ve ever toured here as a solo artist.
I have not!
Is there anything in particular that you’re looking forward to doing while you’re back down under?
Everything (laughs), I love it down there. I’ve been trying to get down there since the EP but it’s just kind of hard to get all the way down to the bottom of the world you know. Or I guess it’s on top of the world if you’re you guys. I don’t know.
We’re tragically far-flung. You’re also dropping in at the Mountain Sounds Festival while you’re here, was there anything in particular that drew you to that festival?
Oh man, I think there’s too much knowledge being credited to the artist there. My booking agents have been working really hard to get me there. I mean I wish I had my pick because if I had my pick I’d be booked on all of them (laughs).
No you’re just trying to get one to have you. Sometimes it takes a year or two for anyone to notice but yeah, I mean I don’t know why exactly, they just said that we could make it to Australia and I told them fucking book it then! (Laughs).
Well I’ve no doubt you’re going to enjoy it, you seem to love Australia and that festival happens to be in one of the nicest parts of the country. Really picturesque down there on the Central Coast.
Oh man, sounds awesome. Can’t wait.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTmcBbkU0kw
Have you had a chance to check out the bill you’re on? Anyone you know already or you’re looking forward to seeing?
No I haven’t yet! Someone else asked me that too and I told them that usually when you’re playing a festival your tour manager the day before will ask you if you want to see any bands and you’ll look at the list and be like ‘oh cool these ones!’ but no, I haven’t had a chance to pre-look at it yet but I feel like I should now if I’m going to be doing more interviews, I feel bad! (Laughs)
I like hanging around and watching bands though. You’re saying it’s picturesque like that, I think I want to go and just hang out and listen to bands and enjoy that you know.
Exactly. There are some really talented Aussie musicians on the bill so maybe some fantastic new introductions there. As far as your Aussie fans go though, what can we expect from your shows while you’re down here?
Yeah I don’t know, we put on a really great show. I don’t know what to call it anymore, there’s just so many genres and subgenres of stuff that I don’t know. But we put on a great, entertaining show that I feel like, just based on it in America, that I get a lot of surprised people who didn’t know that they were going to have so much fun. Which I kind of like, it’s like, ‘oh, I had to convince you that I could do that’. I feel like I’m at that stage with this record.
Well we’re all looking forward to it immensely. Just to wrap it up, aside from continuing on your album tour and then coming this way, have you got any plans for the near future? Do you get any time off at all?
Yeah I’ll get some time off on the holidays for sure. I wanted to go to Australia and then to South America in March and we’re going to try to record when I get back so that then we can fill up Spring and Summer with European and American festivals. I just wanted to record some things and see where it can go without the pressure or the idea that you’re trying to make a record.
Excellent. Albert I’ll let you go catch a break before you head out to LA but thank you very much for your time this morning and we’re all looking forward to seeing you when you get here.
Oh that’s right, it’s morning for you guys.
Monday morning to be exact, which is just awful.
Ah man. Well I’m looking forward to coming to Australia too. Come say hey while I’m here!
Momentary Masters is out now via Vagrant Records. Albert Hammond Jr. is on tour in Australia for the following dates and venues:
Tue, Feb 16th: The Gov, Adelaide
Wed, Feb 17th: Woolly Mammoth, Brisbane
Fri, Feb 19th: Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Sun, Feb 21st: Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Albert Hammond Jr. is playing Mountain Sounds Festival on New South Wales’ Central Coast on Saturday the 20th of February. Tickets available here.