22 Dec 2024
Left Or Right - Chicks Hotel Live Review
18 Aug 2009 // A review by left or right
Left or Right w/ Entropy Trio & Julian Temple Band, Chicks Hotel [May 30th 2009]
You’ll have to excuse the varying quality of my recollections, my memory of this night is pretty hazy…
It’s pitch black and fecking cold when we arrive at the bus stop. When we finally clamber aboard our waiting coach (suddenly realising how hard it is to find one’s feet after drinking wine), we are hit with the warmth and stench of booze, leather shoes, and a shared appreciation for fecking good tunes. With a lurch, the bus takes off, and we are on our way to Chicks Hotel. The atmosphere on the bus is pretty electric, as loud, drunken conversations compete with each other, hairy people chat to hairless people, and those of us standing in the aisle desperately cling to whatever’s nearby in a bid to stay upright. Once we arrive, and get inside out of the rain – I’m talking fecking torrential, people – many, imbibe alcohol in one form or another restoring warmth and blood flow. I’m a big fan of methylated spirits strained through bread myself, and when I asked the bartender for precisely that, she looked at me like I’d fingered her goldfish.
Moving on from my trouble with the help, the first band to take the stage is Entropy Trio, a jazz trio consisting of sax, bass and drums. Their somewhat limited instrumentation forces them to take a different compositional approach. As a result each instrumentalist shines, simply because they have to – there is no dense wall of sound to hide behind. Their set never tires, taking detours through a range of tempos and styles, edging on free jazz at times (I fecking love the sound of a squealing sax – in fact I like the sound of any instrument being abused, that’s what they’re there for, goddamnit). Through all this, they keep the crowd engaged and on their feet. That’s a refreshing thing to see in this day and age of musclebound homunculus frontmen telling everyone to “get the feck up” at every opportunity.
Left or Right appear next, and need no introduction. Their style is sewn together from a wide range of leftover parts: dub, blues, metal and noise/psychedelia are some points of reference, although they are not truly any of these. As a live experience, Left or Right are the ultimate bait-and-switch band. They lull you with their skanking dub and creamy three-part vocal harmonies. You think to yourself, “Oh, this is cool, they’ve got me dancing.” And I never dance. Then, you realise you fecked with the wrong dog’s chewtoy when they rip your fecking head off with some ugly, oozing Melvinsoid riffs, before descending into the bowels of hell for some truly fecked-up noise jams. This embrace of noise and filth has become ever more present in Left or Right’s sets, and I can only applaud this direction.
The final band of the night is the Julian Temple Band, which features two-thirds of Entropy Trio (or does Entorpy Trio feature two-thirds of the Julian Temple Band?). This band is difficult to categorise, and it seems a shame to even try. There is a definite funk and jazz feel to their approach, which I guess is inevitable, given the inclinations of the drummer and the bassist. They combine this with a punk/surf rock attack which makes them truly enigmatic and original. Their singer has a granitic rasp of a voice, which complements their rough-around-the-edges approach perfectly.
So, a fecking good live show all round. The acts were wildly different to one another, which always makes for an interesting night. The dickhead factor was low too, with no-one trying to ruin shit for everyone else by acting like a fecking (Edited), if you’ll excuse the sailor talk. Go and see all of these bands when they play, they are all fantastic ways to lose your hearing.
Matthew ‘The Killer’ Hoffman.
Left or Right w/ Entropy Trio & Julian Temple Band, Chicks Hotel [May 30th 2009]You’ll have to excuse the varying quality of my recollections, my memory of this night is pretty hazy…
It’s pitch black and fecking cold when we arrive at the bus stop. When we finally clamber aboard our waiting coach (suddenly realising how hard it is to find one’s feet after drinking wine), we are hit with the warmth and stench of booze, leather shoes, and a shared appreciation for fecking good tunes. With a lurch, the bus takes off, and we are on our way to Chicks Hotel. The atmosphere on the bus is pretty electric, as loud, drunken conversations compete with each other, hairy people chat to hairless people, and those of us standing in the aisle desperately cling to whatever’s nearby in a bid to stay upright. Once we arrive, and get inside out of the rain – I’m talking fecking torrential, people – many, imbibe alcohol in one form or another restoring warmth and blood flow. I’m a big fan of methylated spirits strained through bread myself, and when I asked the bartender for precisely that, she looked at me like I’d fingered her goldfish.
Moving on from my trouble with the help, the first band to take the stage is Entropy Trio, a jazz trio consisting of sax, bass and drums. Their somewhat limited instrumentation forces them to take a different compositional approach. As a result each instrumentalist shines, simply because they have to – there is no dense wall of sound to hide behind. Their set never tires, taking detours through a range of tempos and styles, edging on free jazz at times (I fecking love the sound of a squealing sax – in fact I like the sound of any instrument being abused, that’s what they’re there for, goddamnit). Through all this, they keep the crowd engaged and on their feet. That’s a refreshing thing to see in this day and age of musclebound homunculus frontmen telling everyone to “get the feck up” at every opportunity.
Left or Right appear next, and need no introduction. Their style is sewn together from a wide range of leftover parts: dub, blues, metal and noise/psychedelia are some points of reference, although they are not truly any of these. As a live experience, Left or Right are the ultimate bait-and-switch band. They lull you with their skanking dub and creamy three-part vocal harmonies. You think to yourself, “Oh, this is cool, they’ve got me dancing.” And I never dance. Then, you realise you fecked with the wrong dog’s chewtoy when they rip your fecking head off with some ugly, oozing Melvinsoid riffs, before descending into the bowels of hell for some truly fecked-up noise jams. This embrace of noise and filth has become ever more present in Left or Right’s sets, and I can only applaud this direction.
The final band of the night is the Julian Temple Band, which features two-thirds of Entropy Trio (or does Entorpy Trio feature two-thirds of the Julian Temple Band?). This band is difficult to categorise, and it seems a shame to even try. There is a definite funk and jazz feel to their approach, which I guess is inevitable, given the inclinations of the drummer and the bassist. They combine this with a punk/surf rock attack which makes them truly enigmatic and original. Their singer has a granitic rasp of a voice, which complements their rough-around-the-edges approach perfectly.
So, a fecking good live show all round. The acts were wildly different to one another, which always makes for an interesting night. The dickhead factor was low too, with no-one trying to ruin shit for everyone else by acting like a fecking (Edited), if you’ll excuse the sailor talk. Go and see all of these bands when they play, they are all fantastic ways to lose your hearing.
Matthew ‘The Killer’ Hoffman.
About Left Or Right
Since the release of their 2009 debut record, Left Or Right have continued on their mission of extensive touring: appearing at some of NZ’s sweetest festivals along the way (Kaikoura Roots, Feastock & Catlins River Festival), and performing alongside many of NZ’s highest profile acts (The Black Seeds, Kora & Salmonella Dub). All the while, the band have also been honing their song writing craft, with an eye to the recording of the new album, Buzzy.
Just under a year in the making, Buzzy was recorded in Dunedin at Albany St Studios by Mike Holland and Left or Right, and Mastered by Dale Cotton (Beastwars, The Bats). The making of Buzzy has very much lived up to the record’s title, diving into an intense and at times bizarre world of sound.
Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for Left Or Right
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