With Josh Nixon
Does it feel a bit weird that music is coming out of hibernation when it starts to get cold?
I dunno, but the amount of pits being opened up on my socials is waking me from a slumber, and the amount of folks getting out from original old school Metal from the Grave to the Tool tribute in recent weeks is awesome to see.
The Basement is booked pretty solid through til early next year now from what I’ve heard and I figure, as the restrictions continue to ease, we might see the rumoured eventuality of some new places for live music opening up in the city – especially off of the back of the grants announced for live music venues in recent weeks from the local government. Here’s hoping for some momentum in the right direction if the feds can actually deliver some vaccines around the joint.
The Basement is kicking off May with a Monday night idea I like called The Basement Bash. A younger crew of bands chucking a show on Monday, 3 May is the kind of chutzpah I like. Who cares if you have a job when you can riff on a Monday, so hats off to Signs and Symbols, ENFANTS, Hymmnn and The Dirty Sunflowers for flying in the face of convention.
Sydney’s Diamond Construct hit Belco courtesy of Destroy All Lines on Friday, 14 May along with Mirrors and Weighbridge. The lads put out an EP last August called DCX2 and obviously had to wait a bit to start airing their new work for us. With an Architects/Northlane kinda vibe the EP is some strong work if that’s your cup of metal, so give it a sus before heading along to the show.
Saturday, 22 May is chockers at The Basement with each room hosting something for the fans of heavy.
The big room hosts Sun Burn, the Australian stoner doom festival that kicked off in late 2019 with an enormous show in Melbourne before having to slow up prior to its New Zealand leg due to Covid. The rebirth hits the big room with an enormous line-up of Australia’s heaviest stoner doom acts including Pod People, Potion, Burn the Hostages, Lucifungus, Astro Death and Master Leonard with tickets available through Oztix which, as of writing, were selling very quickly so don’t miss out.
Out in the back room on the very same night is a huge bill of more upbeat heaviness with local breakdown-heavy Deathbeds headlining Apate, Wraith, and Bury Me. Deathbeds released their excellent debut album Sinner last year and the smaller capacity room has limited tickets so head to Oztix to purchase yours.
For Friday, 28 May prepare your boarding passes through Oztix to take off with Pilots of Baalbek. The flight includes entertainment from central coast rockers The Dunhill Blues and locals BC. The Pilots launched their excellent debut Uncontrolled Airspace last year and so hopefully now the passengers for this flight will be well versed for some of their big sing-along chorus and catchy shuffle hard rockin’ good times.
Longstay locals Buff Tundrel (now known as the sleeker Tundrel) have been kicking out their quality jams for 26 years in Canberra and just dropped their excellent Tundrel Tomes Volume 2 in April. The guys are giving you a few weeks to marinate on the goodness before hitting up Smith’s Alternative on Friday, 4 June. As noted in this issue’s review by Rory McCartney of their single Put Em Down, the band are in killer form.
Chain Tombstone & The Dead Men dropped an album in January called Circus of Gore and they’re bringing the circus to The Basement on Friday, 11 June with Axiomatic Theory and Black Heart. Check the album out and then go grab some tickets for the show!
Futility have previewed their latest album, Anhedonic, for me and I’m going to be dropping a review of the monster new death doom classic when I get some details of its release. Suffice to say the lads had upped the ante to produce their best work to date and it’s a bloody ripper, well as much as the word ripper can describe the miserable goodness they cram into the album [Hey gang, Bossman Sko here – you can also preorder the release on Bandcamp now – https://futility.bandcamp.com/ and get an aural peak at some of the tracks!]
Furthermore, Kurt from the band is running With A Heavy Heart 8 at the Polish White Eagle/Live At The Polo in July with a massive bill of Australian death doom legends including Cruciform, Illimitable Dolor, Futility, Burden Man and Dust Devil. A stellar bill for mid winter lamentations and you can get your tickets through Trybooking.
Mucho metal this month, with more to come. See you next time.
