Grace Notes @ Snarkattack

I can’t even remember how it was that I came to think that I’d like The Grey Daturas – maybe it was the drone/noise thing, whatever. It’s not really important.

The short review of their gig at the Arthouse, Melbourne is they produce sounds that made me want to take off my panties and press my privates to the bare wooden floor.

The long review is as follows.

Distortion on the guitar – lots of it. Just the two guitars, gently building note upon note, harmonic upon harmonic. Some of the sounds spike up towards the higher registers (I didn’t like these so much) but most were very low and vibrated constantly.

I begin to understand why noise gigs are so amazing: it’s as much a physiological experience as it is an emotional one. I felt many of the long, droning, low frequencies vibrate up as far as my throat, and move down to my hips. Given that everyone has a different resonant frequency (our lungs are cavities, after all), I imagine that it’s going to feel different for everyone.

So the guitars are building this gorgeous lush wall of noise and vibration, and everything gets louder and more intense. Eventually, the drums come in.

What I loved was they really control how they lead their audience up to their climax, and let them down with as much care. I am not kidding when I say this gig was as moving (and heartbreaking, in a way) as some of the best classical music concerts I’ve ever been to.

My only complaint is they didn’t play for long enough – just the one track (which, to be fair, went for at least half an hour).

Afterwards, Flipper played for a good two hours. They were great, but The Grey Daturas had already carried my heart away. Awesome rowdy punk. I went alone (again!) but very, very pleased with myself for having made the effort on what was a very cold winter night in Melbourne. Cheers to @lukeii for having dinner with me beforehand.