Palace of Fire + SPOD

By sheer accident, I heard new Wolfmother’s latest single before arriving at this gig. It’s terrible. Just awful, but hilariously so. The spoken word part in the middle with the faux-English accent is particularly, brilliantly bad. Total Spinal Tap. It’ll sell millions, while here, at the Hoey on a cool Monday night (with a $10 cover no less), are the actual talent: Wolfmother’s former rhythm section Myles Heskett and Chris Ross, who are premiering a new sound with Charge Group’s Matt Blackman. Some are here with genuine hope, others heard the “W” word and are praying for a train wreck. Either way, anticipation is in the air.

Opening proceedings is a very relaxed SPOD, casually-dressed but still boastfully declarative as usual, playing a laidback set of whatever the fuck he wants. His latest album Superfrenz sees a good run, with ‘Cats’ (self)described as something along the lines of the greatest song ever written. It’s certainly pretty fucken good. Audience hugs, loveheart stickers and a confetti snowstorm excite the room, as well as a birthday surprise mash-up for one crowd member. Apparently there were mistakes all through it, but I wouldn’t have known had he not said so: “I guess this is a pretty shit birthday present, huh? By the way, I got your sister pregnant.” He really is wonderful - I’d so hate to perform, particularly for the first time ever, after SPOD.

Palace of Fire seem to really like stuff. There’s stuff all over the stage; more than I’ve ever seen in one set at the Hoey. Synths and keyboards and about a trillion pedals, jostling for room among the guitars and basses and drums. They walk on stage and immediately take to their stuff, playing a long, moody sequence before jumping into the first song. It’s good. They’re tight and they’re heavy and they seem so glad to be onstage. Blackman’s vocals fit perfectly with Ross and Heskett’s furious clatter. It feels as though there are some tendencies to explore synth frottage for just a little too long, but that might be because I was enjoying their harder sound much more.

I sincerely hope they break the curse of Wolfmother – to not be known as the band with those two guys from that other band, but to gain recognition and applaud on their own terms. They deserve it. This was a great debut gig, from a band that sound as though they could have been together for years. It’ll be interesting to see where they take it and how their sound evolves.

by A.H. Cayley