REVIEW: Left Or Right w/ Mountaineater & Alazarin Lizard At Sammys, Dunedin

Sammy's has got to be one of the coolest venues in NZ, straight up. The perfect blend of size, aesthetic, vibe and practicality (who doesn't like a balcony with seating and standing space for a sweet view and sound when you want it?). I hadn't been there before, although I'd known about it for years, hence the reason it gets first props. Although the turnout wasn't large, the couple hundred odd that did attend were up for it and there to see some already decidedly, great local music.

Alazarin Lizard opened with their set to a small but enthusiastic set of fans with their own raucous rock 'n roll. After a rugged start, it turns out they have some pretty good tunes and a point of difference amongst the indie rock throngs with the psychedelic elements. The best songs were front loaded in the set, I felt that it stated losing focus and song quality towards the end of the set and the awkward mumblings of some of the band members between songs hindered the sets flow somewhat. To my ears, they're part Clash, part The Jam and part Arctic Monkeys (quite British) The youthful energy, good spirit and potential is clear in this band. If they stick it out and continue on, I'd pick them as a band to watch out for.

Mountaineater served up a visceral other-worldly set and straight owned it. With this music you don't need to know the songs or even to have heard them before, to know that what is going down is some real shit. Intense and grinding, with an awesome wall of guitar sound dished up by frontman Tristan (ex HDU). His guitar playing roamed between melodic psychedelic, screaming feedback and fuck-off solid riffage. The rhythm section of this 3 piece are no mugs, providing a solid foundation for the guitar and sparse vocal injections. The energy, fluid tightness and sheer difference of this band is mean and they threw themselves whole-heartedly into the performance. Reminded me of seeing Shellac at The Mandalay about ten years back (HDU supported). Awesome.

Left or Right had the crowds love and enthusiasm throughout their (as always) solid set. This band are equally at home with reggae and dub as they are with metal and sludge rock and this set showed it all off. The three musicians all sing and harmonise with each other throughout the different styles, an especially impressive thing for a drummer to do while playing a myriad of beats and percussion. Vocals are a definite strong point in this band. My only issue with the performance was the chopping and changing between styles so often, made it a bit disjointed, not allowing the groove quite enough time to really get inside the crowd and take them to that 'other place'. It felt like they were trying to do too much. Other than that though, a sweet set.

Three of Dunedins finest at its best venue. Props to the soundie too for getting good mixes for three very different bands.

By Brent Strathdee