Obituary @ The Governor Hindmarsh (Adelaide), 21 Nov 2009
One thing about going to shows in late spring, on a Saturday, is that, if you are hanging out at a mate's place before the show, time tends to disappear as you relax and get into beer and conversation. As we did on Saturday prior to Obituary; meaning it was a bit of a scramble to get our shit together and head out to the Gov on Port Road on time. It turned out that we only missed the very beginning of Mammoth's set; something that I was pleased about because I finally got to see these guys play. I'm probably the only one on the scene here who has for some reason missed them every single time.
I'd been looking forward to the Obituary gig, not just because I love death metal shows and anticipation was high, but because it was at the Governor Hindmarsh: a venue that I consider one of the best in Adelaide for live shows. Why? It's big, it's comfortable, the sound is absolutely killer and can handle even the heaviest shows with ease. And, of course, you can stand out in the beer garden having a smoke in full view of the band and still enjoy the set. Everything you need for a great night, the Gov has, and metal shows there are (unfortunately) fairly rare.
Getting to the Gov was a bit of a bitch, given the roadworks, and the subsequent removal of a lot of the parking immediately around the Governor Hindmarsh in order to cope with it. This may have been one of the reasons why there weren't many punters present for the support acts. Those who were there were enthusiastic as hell, for the most part, and the general vibe was one of rising excitement.
Mammoth describe themselves as 'bluesy southern rock', which is pretty accurate. A lot of people would no doubt throw them into the stoner rock category, because they have a sound that is something like Black Sabbath crossed with Kyuss: the Sabbath groove and the Kyuss licks. Someone also commented on the band's Down-like element in the sound, but not being a Down fan I'm not going to comment on that. Mammoth have a decent stage presence, they look like they're at ease on the stage - which is not surprising, given the history some of these musicians have: one of the guitarists and co-founder of the band is ex-Suffocation bassist Josh Barohn - and they look like they work well together.
Having been talked at extensively about frontman Pahl Hodgson's vocals by people who have seen them in the past, most often in glowing terms, I was surprised to find that the vocals didn't work for me at all. Talking to people afterwards, I learned that the lower, rough vocals Hodgson displayed during the set were unusual, that they're not usually like that, being generally a lot cleaner - which is what would have worked a lot better. As it stood though, it jarred with the sound of the rest of the band. The only other thing that detracted from Mammoth's performance was the fairly frequent stopping to re-tune; it would have vastly improved the set if it had been continuous.
All that said, though, it was rather enjoyable and I'm looking forward to seeing them again, to re-evaluate my opinion.
The second support act was Double Dragon. These guys play well, they are tight and energetic, but fuck me I've seen them a lot lately. And the primary reason for my lack of enjoyment of their set was the utter weariness I experienced, derived from seeing them so goddamn much. Don't get me wrong, they're great people but I think the gig-weariness has finally gotten to me. It actually got to the point where I stopped paying attention - sorry fellas. It was good, they are able, they went as hard as they always do, and a lot of people got into it, but my ability to pay attention was absolute zilch. I wasn't alone in this, either. A lot of the people I was talking to at the time said the same thing.
I'm not convinced that either support act were exactly right for this show. It was good to get such a mix of genre at a gig like this, with all three bands playing a different style, which helps to avoid death metal overload, and it introduces punters to other subgenres of metal if they are not particularly adventurous themselves; but the jury's out, for me, as to whether a different lineup would have been more fitting.
After a suitably long interlude, long enough for a couple of beers and for the crowd to swell to a size far larger than I thought was going to happen for this show, given the turn-out earlier on, Obituary finally hit the stage, after a burst of rap.
While other reviewers haven't mentioned it, or expressed being baffed by it when they did, they shouldn't have been. The track was a Necro track, from his album The Pre-fix for Death, which features, in different tracks, Obituary's Trevor Peres & John Tardy. To be perfectly honest, I only know this because the peeps I was standing next to got all excited and told me all about it. I don't think anybody expected such an intro - and it was a great touch, much appreciated by those in the know.
With absolutely no bullshit chatter, no pretence, just death metal as it should be - heavy as fuck - the headliners then ripped through their set and slaughtered the crowd. The sound at the Gov, as I mentioned earlier, is outstanding, and coped with the heaviness of this set like I believe no other venue in Adelaide could have done, HQ excepted. Donald Tardy's signature drumming style - uncompromisingly beating the fuck out of the skins, which we were treated to during a decent solo - would have destroyed the sound at somewhere like Fowler's. Although Ralph Santolla is easily one of the most bored-looking guitarists I've ever seen grace a stage, you can't deny the dude's ability to pull great work out of his arse easily and effortlessly. As for the other guys, Watkins, Peres and, of course, frontman John Tardy, their performances were all great as well.
While Obituary did not play Chopped In Half - much to some fans' chagrin and total, and very vocal, disappointment - they took us on a bit of a discography journey, playing material off the most recent Darkest Day (of course), The End Complete, Cause of Death, World Demise, Back from the Dead, Xecutioner's Return... and, of course, they did play a Celtic Frost cover. But, we all know they would never have gotten out alive if they hadn't played Slowly we Rot - and they did, right at the end.
As always with a show like this, the set is always too short, there are never enough encores, there are tracks they couldn't fit in, and it's all over far too soon. The punters jumped, moshed hard, held hands and moshed hard (yes, really, men doing this!), crowd surfed, stage dived and hit the deck, drank pint after pint of beer and moshed even harder, screamed, shouted, sweated, grinned like idiots, and generally went as hard as Obituary did. With a crowd ranging from young kids - the youngest I saw would have been maybe eight or ten years old - to the ageing old-school metallers amongst us, this show was awesome.
Even better, perhaps, was the fact that Obituary don't sit back-stage all night or after the show, and were out circulating amongst the fans, for the most part happy to sign ticket stubs and albums, pose for photos with the faithful, and talk to people, even while they were in the middle of loading out of the venue. The only band member who didn't join in the fun was Ralph Santolla; but if you were pissed about that, cut him some slack: he had a death in his family this week, so it's unsurprising that he wasn't exactly keen to shoot the shit.
Some would say that this show kicks the shit out of all the previous shows this year; but I'm not going to go there any more or make comparisons because it's too hard after the year of awesome tours we've had. Suffice it to say that it was killer and if you missed it, then getting all emo and sitting in the dark and crying would be a fitting thing to do.
