Who: Mr. Bungle, Melvins and Spotlights

Where: Mission Ballroom. Denver, CO

When: May 16, 2023

In 2020, about one month before we were all quarantining in our respective hovels, Mr. Bungle played their first live show in 19 years at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. It was the first show of a seven date/three city run that really none of us ever expected to happen. The shows were designed to celebrate Bungle’s humble beginnings as a rag-tag bunch of teenagers from Eureka, California trying their hand at being a thrash band. This culminated in Mr. Bungle’s first demo tape, The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny. It was rough. Real rough. But the seeds of promise were there. Cut back to 2020 and Mr. Bungle releases Wrath re-recorded in all its thrashy glory but this time around they had the help of 2 masters of the genre, Dave Lombardo of Slayer and Scott Ian of Anthrax.

Well, like anything else Mr. Bungle does, you can never predict what happens next. So in January 2023 when they announced a full-scale US tour revisiting the Ipecac Geek Tours of olde, and again focusing Bungle’s thrash years, it was a pleasant and welcome surprise indeed.

Which brings us to the Mission Ballroom Tuesday night. Expectations were high and met almost immediately with Spotlights, the first band of the night. Their new album Alchemy For the Dead is a monster and well worth picking up for fans of dark, heavy beauty.

Up next were Melvins, a band that after 40 years still defies categorization but should also need no introduction. The core duo of King Buzzo and Dale Crover are still absolute forces of nature holding down the tone and setting the pace while bassist Steven McDonald is a whirling dervish all over stage left.

Seeing Mr. Bungle live is always an experience and this incarnation of the band, with old friend Lombardo and new friend Ian is no difference. Dave Lombardo’s status has reached deity levels through his work with Slayer alone. But it must be noted that his myriad of other work, including his latest masterpiece of a solo album, Rites of Percussion show just untouchable the man truly is with his instrument. Scott Ian we all know as one of the best rhythm guitarists in metal but it wouldn’t be hyperbole to say that Trey Spruance, (part of the core founding triumvirate of Mr. Bungle - along with Mike Patton and Trevor Dunn) is an exceptional thrash guitarist, and a true pleasure to witness live. 
The bulk of the band’s set was of course made up of Raging Wrath tunes, along with covers from the likes of Cro-Mags and Sepultura and Slayer. The latter, as we all know with perpetual shit-disturber Patton will never be played to completion. In this case, going from the three minute Hell Awaits intro directly into Seals and Croft’s “Summer Breeze”.

The Geek Show tour continues through most of May with another Bungle tour on the east coast later on in the year.

Who: Greg Puciato w/ Escuela Grind, Deaf Club and Trace Amount

Where: Marquis Theater, Denver CO

When: May 10, 2023

Since the dissolution of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Greg Puciato has been busy. Like, really busy. Like, Mike Patton busy. Releasing two solo albums and an e.p., a new Killer Be Killed album, a new Black Queen album as well as guesting on at least three albums and touring as part of Jerry Cantrell’s band.

What Denver’s Marquis Theater was privy to was a tight AF set encapsulating all of his solo work to date and one couldn’t help but feel they were watching something unlikely to happen again. Indeed, a few days before the show, it was announced that Puciato was to be the singer of Better Lovers, a newly formed band also featuring members of Every Time I Die and Fit For An Autopsy with an album and tour to follow in quick succession.

Opening the show for good measure were Escuela Grind from upstate New York, Deaf Club from Southern California (featuring vocalist Justin Pearson, the only person that might actually be busier than Mike Patton) and Trace Amount, also from New York.

It’s rare to have a four-band-bill with everyone firing on all cylinders, but that’s what makes this tour one to see. Check dates below.

Ruel
Aware Super Theatre
28 April 2023
Sydney, Australia

Having established himself firmly on the firmament of international performers since he first appeared on the scene seven years ago at the mere age of fourteen, the London-born and Sydney-based artist mononymously known as Ruel has recently dropped his first full-length album, i.e. “4th Wall”, much to wide critical acclaim.

Needless to say that we were intrigued to find out how Ruel was going to channel his distinctively emotive vocal tone, the baring of his vulnerable thoughts centred around the implications of love and self-realisation and engaging knack for creating accessible contemporary pop music in a live context.

Vocally effortlessly moving between his trademark luring middle register and falsetto, Ruel showcased what appears to be an innate command of his range from the get go. 

Informed by a bubbling confidence, Ruel conveyed the melancholic tinge of his stories energetically and at times with a seemingly deliberate melodramatic feel, backed by instrumentation that was reminiscent of a well-calibrated melange of a multitude of genres, ranging from the Beatles to notes taken out of the book of 1975.

Given what Ruel achieves at this young age in terms of cinematic proportions, aficionados of contemporary laid-back, catchy pop tunes that are delivered with a soulful ease should take note and catch an evolving artist at this nascent stage of his career.

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photo courtesy of Michelle Grace Hunder

Synthony No.3
Aware Super Theatre
Sydney, Australia
22 April 2023

One would be hard pressed to dispute that there is something life affirming when a full blown orchestra interprets the crème de la crème of what the last three decades of dance music have to offer.

The Synthony Orchestra has established itself firmly on the firmament of both dance music lovers as well as live spectacle aficionados with its idiosyncratic way of showering willing audiences with timeless crowd pleasers. With the setlist comprised of tunes sourced from an era when house and Ministry of Sound reigned supreme, not unlike with the first two incarnations, genres are seamlessly transitioned across.

Warmed up by two dedicated DJ sets, the crowd was ready to have its dance endorphin centres triggered with Synthony’s reimaginations of iconic club bangers and future classics.

The infectious and hypnotic euphoria that ensues when huge, electrifying tracks are performed by an emotive orchestra the performance of which is at times accentuated by live drums, vocals courtesy of e.g. Natalie Bassingthwaighte from the Rogue Traders, Ilan Kidron (Potbellez) and Cassie McIvor among others, and expertly conducted by Sarah Grace-Williams, proves to be an irresistible formula. Backed by mind-boggling visuals and an intricate laser, the show is a feast for all senses.

What culminated with Synthony’s trademark take on Darude’s “Sandstorm” is an explosive, engaging and masterfully epic celebration of dance music that is testament to the compound effect the merging of different musical worlds can result in.

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photo courtesy of Synthony

Thus Let Us Drink Beer

Alice Springs Brewing Co.

If you harbour a remote interest in this series, you’d be aware that most of the Australian breweries we have covered are based on the East Coast of Australia, with urban centres like Sydney and Melbourne being particular hotbeds.

All the more enticed was my beer loving palate when I learned about a brewery channelling its alchemy in the hot desert climate of a town that is situated roughly in the very centre of the expansive continent that is terra australis.

Equidistant from Darwin and Adelaide at the gateway to the red centre and surrounded by awe-inspiring national parks, Alice Springs Brewing Co. has ambitiously overcome countless logistical hurdles ranging from the town’s water quality, restrictive freight and transport rates and particular local liquor licensing requirements, before incarnating in 2018 with its first frothy emissions. 

Needless to say, given the climate and context of its location, the focus of Alice Springs Brewing Co’s portfolio is firmly set on sessionable, lower ABV brews that lend themselves well to be drunk in the desert like circumstances. I was all the more excited to discover that recently, two limited IPA expressions have made an appearance in the line-up.

Adorned with idiosyncratic colourful branding that signifies a tongue-in-cheek nod to a scene from Crocodile Dundee courtesy of Jessie Jungalwalla of Craft Instinct and aptly named That’s Not A Knife, the twinset of India Pale Ales is based on a melange of Enigma, Vic Secret and Galaxy hops.

Light copper in appearance, the regular variant of the That’s Not A Knife IPA is an example par excellence for a well-calibrated brew with hop heavy, resinous highlights, which are counterpointed by spiky, herbal nuances dancing against a backdrop of a malty bitterness. 

While the basic version won me over instantenously, things were elevated to yet a new level with the IIPA variant: 
Clocking in at an ABV of 8.5%, this little amber hued number embodies everything that I love about IPAs in that the piney hoppiness is framed by tangy, citric notes, which serve to further pronounce the crescendo of malt biscuity and pineapple flavours accentuating crisp hints of white grape, tart redcurrant and sweet rockmelon.

Plain wonderful.

I can only hope that Alice Springs Brewing Co. considers to make the aforementioned IPA a permanent fixture of its portfolio and that it will become widely available.

Urban Alley

With its focus set on the sustainable production of its beers starting with the ability to treat water onsite and being an early adaptor of using six-pack holder rings made of recycled and compostable materials, Urban Alley Brewery’s operations are centred around a green focus.

Having been established five years ago in the District Docklands of Melbourne, backed by the founder duo’s long-standing history in the hospitality industry and having never heard anything other than good things about its crafty, frothy emissions that make up its accolade decorated core range, which has become known for being a veritable pathway to lure the masses from mainstream to craft beer, I have been aching to get my paws on Urban Alley Brewery’s much fabled about limited releases, specifically in the IPA department.

If you happen to remotely follow this series, it should not come as a surprise that I am partial to a well calibrated boilermaker. 

With a dram of Laphroaig Quarter Cask poured, my choice of the evening was Urban Alley’s El Dorado Sour IPA.

Clocking in at 6% ABV, this little yellow tinged number knows to convince on the intense flavour end, bringing forth bright tropical, citrussy fruit flavours and distinct aromas of tangerine, pear, watermelon, and stone fruitiness, which are artfully counterbalanced by great bittering qualities that are rounded out by piney nuances.

The unique species of Lachancea that is Philly Sour, i.e. a pure strain of active dried yeast, adds a welcome refreshing acidity level, which makes the Islay dram sing even more. 

A delicious, juicy and hoppy tour de force.

Next up was the more traditional Lightning Bolt Aussie IPA, which as the name suggests, is based on a melange of all-Australian hops. 
With Eclipse hops imparting fruit forward flavours of sweet mandarin, zesty citrus peel and fresh pine needles, a medium bitterness and resinous highlights courtesy of Vic Secret hops dance against a backdrop of mango, thyme, which make it an electrifyingly, dangerously sessionable go-to sipper.

With Urban Alley Brewery’s attention to details, which does not stop at the creation of their beers but extends to their subtle merch range, I cannot wait for them to channel their alchemy in the creation of a DIPA.