Triangle Fight/Hailmary
Rosemount Hotel Saturday, July 15, 2014
Starting promptly right on 8.30pm, Triangle Fight opened with a soulful number, wrong-footing the crowd in some ways as it became rapidly more aggressive and forceful, showcasing some very capable string work from the Gonzalez brothers, Paulo on guitar and Martin on bass. Drummer, Sofia Varano, appeared to be struggling to get some beats coordinated with the rest of the band. It possibly could have sounded better if played on standard drums instead of the part-electronic kit that was used. Meanwhile, Paulo Gonzalez sang well across the set, leaning a little off the guitar work near set’s end.
Fresh off a recent five-week national tour, Hailmary featured fill-in guitarist, Ben Elphick (covering for regular guitarist, Todd Fishwick) who impressed with his chops after, apparently, a single rehearsal. Opening with Anything Is Possible and jumping right into Wake Up to follow,
it was a pumping hard rock set overall, ending with the crowd favourite, Good To Go, rendered with a blues break in the middle to tease the onlookers.
In light of this auspicious occasion, The Brown Study Band were decked to the nines – Mariachi horn section, Afro percussionist, Samurai singer/keyboardist, Arabian Sheik bassist, Indigenous North American drummer, and a stereotypical baguette-toting Frenchman guitarist.
The opener, Slap!, certainly set the Zappa-esque tone for the night. Dez Richardson was a consummate, confident kamikaze frontman on lead vocals and was certainly the entertainer in the band, yet there were many instruments and flavours added into what was a layered, yet edgy blend throughout the evening. Dazastah from Downsyde provided excellent guest-work on Party In The Desert before Loose Change For Free Range saw a choir of squawking rubber chickens joined by the audience in a poultry-worshipping chant.
A true-to-the-original cover of Faith No More’s Epic was suitably that, before Brown Study brought it on home with their own New History Of Atlantis, encored by The Person Your Are Trying To Contact. It was a gutsy, flawless performance that preached to the converted and converted those who were previously unenlightened. The emptied merchandise stall at the end of the night was certainly proof of that.
J-F JAMES
