Degreaser

Tim Evans is one of those larger-than-life figures of the Australian music scene, both literally and figuratively. People speak of his bands with hushed awe. With Tassie punks Mouth, the iconic Sea Scouts, experimental solo project Flying Phallus, La Scimmia and the almost famous Bird Blobs, Evans has always embraced change, while steadfastly remaining true to his own unflinchingly bleak vision.

Since moving to New York following the dissolution of Bird Blobs in 2005, his musical projects haven’t received the attention they deserve in his homeland. The tyranny of distance has meant that his bands Bogan Dust, Coconuts and Degreaser have languished in the obscurity of MySpace for those unlucky enough not to reside in the Big Apple, where Evans has been working as a bar manager. With the [imminent release](Coconuts of Coconuts’ debut album and a brief visit to Melbourne to play with a local version of Degreaser, he has made a spectacular re-entry into the domestic music scene.

With only two rehearsals under their belt, the band still managed to be tight and brutal. The calibre of collaborators ensured that everything was geared towards maximum impact. Fresh from the last Grey Daturas show only a week ago, Rob Mayson hammered the drums with almost military precision, preferring to mostly steer clear of cymbals in favour of a tom-heavy crawl through a snake-infested swamp. Tom Lyngcoln, a frontman himself in The Nation Blue, assumed bass duties. With his steady repetition of low-end grooves he was the perfect foil for Mayson, the two merging into a dream rhythm section for discerning psychopaths.

The tempo remained deliberately slow throughout the set, giving Evans free reign to scrawl wildly out of control guitar noise over the top; a harsh, trebly grind, awash in feedback. There were stylistic nods to Bird Blobs, but the songs were a lot darker and intended to pummel listeners rather than make them tap their feet. It’s a sound that is quintessentially Australian, although one would be hard-pressed to draw any direct comparisons. More than anything else, what the audience witnessed was an artist still at the peak of his creative powers and remaining as hardnosed in his expression as he has always been.

For the last number, Evans invited his old Bird Blobs cohort Ian Wadley to join in on guitar. The two musicians’ divergent styles were central to their former band’s uniqueness, so it was a special treat to hear them feeding off each other once again. Let’s hope that this Antipodean version of Degreaser makes more appearances and maybe even gets to record. This show was incredible and left everybody hungry for more.

by René Schaefer