Sea Mouse – Whammy Bar: September 24, 2022

Sea Mouse are a blues rock power trio with a mighty engine which they revved and blasted throughout their headline set.

Seamus Johnson is singer and guitarist. Also, the songwriter, and with a long history of bands and support gigs for heavy hitters. He would be the origin of their name. The sea mouse is also a psychedelic-coloured marine worm, if they ever want to drift down the prog alley.

The engine and blast furnace, Scott Maynard bass, and Thomas Friggens drums.

They have a new EP Evil Heart, and they lay out all five tracks at the top half of the set. Heartwarmingly old school and just plain masterful.

Whittlers Blues starts with a slow blues riff and a John Lee Hooker menacing growl.

Killer is classic southside Chicago. Small-joint smoky dive music.

Quit My Job starts with a bit of the Bo Diddley shave and a haircut, two bits rhythm, leading into some molten guitar riffs reminiscent of AC-DC.

Evil Heart trades on the early country blues with lines like heart as black as coal. Howlin’ Wolf following Charley Patton.

Cold and Lonely might be the best. Starts with Muddy Water’s Rollin’ Stone blues motif. Now he gets to sing the like AC-DC johnson. Sorry, that’s Brian Johnson. The guitar becomes galactic with bending and nicely progressing melody lines and riffs. Great to dance to. Or shuffle nod and play your air guitar.

Makeshift Parachutes

First time seeing Makeshift Parachute and they are an accomplished psychedelic rock band and I can hear why they sell out local gigs here.

Formed in Austin, Texas but relocated here ten years ago where they developed their signature sound. Christian McCollum lead vocals and guitar, Sharif O’Connor guitar and keyboards, Daniel O’Connor bass and vocals and Arthur Brewer drums. There is a fifth member on stage tonight helping with the gadgets.

The O’Connors are New Zealanders, and their visa issues in the States prompted the shift to Auckland.

The set starts with Be Kind Rewind. Distinctive falsetto voice from McCollum. They’re pumping out drone riffs and extended workouts. Ironically, they put me in mind of the great 13^th Floor Elevators, psychedelic rock innovators from the Sixties who came from all around Texas and had an Austin connection too.

Union Co has some of the odd shuffling rhythms of the Beatle’s I Am the Walrus before it locks in to a cathartic drone.

They put out a viscerally moving set, with the high vocals adding the extra lift.

Great Mountain of Death is their finale and they kick it off with fast and simple Johnny Ramone guitar licks. It becomes a riff epic. Waves of texture from the keyboards adds to the majesty and the energy levels feel like radiation. Some screams of metal clashing.

The large crowd is gratefully slayed. There is some Dead in there somewhere.

Ripship

Ripship are a mixed-doubles duo, Eva-Rae McLean, drums and Callum Lincoln, guitar, who put out a big expansive sound in the manner of the White Stripes.

Recognisable as alternative rock, they probably pack more influences in than Jack White, and they have a sense of beat poetry in their lyrics which means they should be reading William Burroughs. And joining that stable of musical thought. Led Zep, Throbbing Gristle, Thin White Rope, Soft Machine, Kurt Cobain, Bowie. The list goes on.

Sci-Fi crossed with techno is accurate. They open with The Great Filter and vocoder singing.

Cloud Seeder is techno funk with great drone riffs that come from the classic Tommy Boy sounds of the Jonzun Crew and Afrika Bambaataa.

Lincoln looks like the progeny if Frank Zappa and Ned Flanders were bio-engineered in a gain of function lab in Wuhan and had escaped. I am thinking of the great heavy-Nedal band, the Okilly Dokilly’s from Phoenix, Arizona. Played on this very stage early in 2020, just before the madness hit.

McLean drives the engine and lays out expert and dramatic change-ups. She also sings/narrates the longer song texts.

Moores Law is an epic sci-fi about multi-Vac, black holes eating stars, the murder of the universe and possibly zombies. Robovocoder also sings. Sound harmolodic in construct as both drums and guitar play on top of each other simultaneously.

Sea Mouse

Six Whiskey’s Deep is the last one off the EP. Again, a John Lee Hooker stomp rhythm and Bon Scott bloke style vocals. I think he sings six whiskeys and seven lemons. Not subtle at all, but great.

They wind up the pace in the second half.

Awesome guitar shreds on Gearbox. The drums hit overdrive as the song doesn’t stop detonating.

Scalene has the nastiness and fuzz of old school Davie Allan motorcycle music. Fast and furious.

Dance closes it out with the refrain of Baby, Please Don’t Go.

Powerhouse blues rock from Sea Mouse. Sci-Fi and Interzone music from Ripship. Psychedelic rock work-outs from Makeshift Parachutes. It felt great to be bowled over repeatedly by all three bands tonight.

Rev Orange Peel

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Leonie Moreland

Sea Mouse:

Ripship:

Makeshift Parachutes: