May 9, 2021

Concert Review: Swallow The Rat – Whammy Bar, May 7, 2021

Swallow The Rat and friends performed at Whammy last night, with the motley collection of bands showcasing some of the best and wildest talent on stage in Auckland over the three-hour gig.

Wrong Things

First to the stage was three-piece Wrong Things, starting the night with that familiar, fading feedback hum that I’ve missed from being at Whammy gigs.

A small crowd of around twenty had already arrived this early in the night, and they were rewarded with a five-song setlist that combined furious guitar riffs and outstanding drums in their early instrumentals, blending vibes of early Queens of The Stone Age and The Strokes in their raw clarity.

The vocals in the latter half of the set started a little between Jim Morrison and Robert Smith, but found themselves in the final, slow-droning guitar numbers, before their closing cover of Gun Club’s Waiting ending the set on a strong note. Definitely a band I’d like to see more of.

Ripship

Shortly afterwards, Ripship took to the stage, an incredible duo I haven’t seen since Whammyfest almost two years ago.

They were one of the earliest bands on, and the crowd could have easily watched the two riff on stage for an hour with their hectic, intergalactic energy. Last night the two had clearly been fine-tuning their performance and gear, refining their sound over the years but losing some of that raw dirtiness from their performance.

Their opening songs featured heavily echoed robotic vocals, massives walls of sound from the drums overlapping with sudden, sharp guitar riffs, before Insufficient Data and the latter half of the set moved into their blend of intergalactic spoken-word musical narrative and hard, driving drums through wailing guitar bends.

Ending their set with a jazzy, electro-acid trip sound, building into an incredible distorted collapse to finish, it was great to see these two have kept the best of what they had two years ago and worked it into something that keeps getting better.

Horror in Clay

Horror in Clay took to the stage drenched under red lights, and with the Jason Vorhees-inspired tapping sounds I already felt spoiled for judging a band by its name.

The four-piece filled the stage with a collection of keyboards and synths, and immediately filled the room with its collective, abrasive sound, a beautiful type of musical force that felt somewhat therapeutic in its wild rage.

Opening with slow-building death-grunge mourning that my teenage mind flashed back to Cradle of Filth, the extreme vocals shared between band members seemed to just flow across their apocalyptic riffs and ethereal patches between walls of sound.

Mixing chaotic, broken riffs together and building to incredible, distorted finishes, it was a shame that a few pockets of the crowd cleared out around halfway through the set. Horror in Clay was a fantastic example of how the density of a crowd at Whammy can really impact a performance; with twice the numbers packed in like it used to be, this group can really open up and unleash the power and ferocity of their sound.

Swallow The Rat

Despite the crowd dwindling slightly in the middle of the evening, Swallow the Rat brought a solid reason to draw anyone down from the streets with their 10-song setlist.

Opening with Tulsa and Daydream, these early The Stooges meets The Clash numbers brought the first of many sharp, highly distorted guitar bends and teenage-mischief alt-pop beats.

With Make, Don’t, and Idea of South, the four-piece moved into slower, quieter guitar riffs that bled spooky western-rock beats across surf-punk vibes into distorted climaxes filled with pounding drums.

The only downside to these moments was losing the intensity of those early vocals between the building wall of sound, but the group returned to their earlier, wonderfully manic energy to finish with Straight Roads, ZZ, and Realised Ex, where the vocals were perfectly warmed-up and fought well against both the furious guitar solos and the power of the incredible drums.

While the entire gig would have benefited from twice the number of people in attendance, it’s incredible to see four individually brilliant bands on a mild Friday night in Auckland, and wonderful to see that New Zealand is still showcasing phenomenal local talent in its music scene.

Oxford Lamoureaux