Batrider
Wooden Shadow Gallery, Melbourne

With each song Batrider go to the edge and hang there, the fury of the band’s sound holding them above the precipice that permanently lurks in the lyrics of vocalist Sarah Chadwick. The key to defying this emotional gravity is the various phrases that the singer pulls from the narrative, fastening onto the words and turning them into grinding mantras. “They don’t need to know what we do,” was one, and when Chadwick screws up her face into the microphone as the repetition takes hold, her bandmates match her in intensity, bearing down on the central riff.

The outcome of these songs, spearheaded by the robust ‘Take Me Back’, is uncertain, but they do enough to offer release to both the artist and the audience. Since their welcome relocation from New Zealand, Batrider have slowly been building in purpose, their material growing sharper and more revelatory. Whether they’re going to stay where they are or break through into some kind of tender resolution is unclear, but right now they’re making pop songs cut together with razor blades.

by Craig Mathieson