HEALTH @ Crowbar
What a great year to be an industrial / noise-rock fan.
Review by Natasha Christian photos & video by Rhys Bennett.
This weird and wonderful - and arguably the best - genre is having its biggest moment since the early 2000s, hallelujah!
Filter, Static-X, Ministry and Skinny Puppy are all touring. Godflesh and Swans just dropped new music. Cate Blanchett in an ever-so-casual, not-like-other-girls way said Einstürzende Neubauten is her favourite band.
Hell, even my pilates class was playing some heavy mechanical beats to get us in the mood to downward dog and do some clams this week.
For the last 10 years, Dark Mofo has been hosting Goth Christmas and bringing the bizarre and controversial to Hobart. Typically the big drawcards don’t do sideshows, and this year it was Trentemøller, Black Flag, Dødheimsgard and Drab Majesty’s turn.
Fortunately, those who couldn’t make the pilgrimage this year were still thrown a bone with shows from Ethel Cain, Molchat Doma and HEALTH.
On Thursday, industrial 3-piece HEALTH made it clear they’re a band who has come a long way since their mid-2000s collabs with Crystal Castles.
Before I got in the door at the sold-out Crowbar show, I counted 10 NIN shirts - mostly Pretty Hate Machine - and by the end of the night, I reckon there were at least 100 in the room. I’d like to think this is the industrial fan’s way of ushering in the new with a nod to the old guard.
Locals ZCluster got the night started with a set that reminded me of the days when we spent a lot of time asking whether Marilyn Manson removed his ribs to suck his own dick. Frontman Sai Lillith’s glorious outfit is clearly inspired by the Guns, Gods and Government days … That iconic intro to Irresponsible Hate Anthem is still seared in my mind.
The band are back in Sydney after playing Dark Mofo’s Night Mass. Sai told the crowd they couldn’t afford to go if ZCluster weren’t playing - unfortunately this year I felt the same way.
The duo took us through their latest release The Rapture. While Sai is clearly an engaging stage presence, I was more wowed by producer INfest8, who unassumingly stood side of the stage, juggling guitar and keys work with total ease. While he’s not the showman, musically he’s the star.
It wasn’t hard to predict that a sea of NIN fans were going to be in the room, so it wasn’t overly surprising when ZCluster covered Hurt. Vocalist Alicia Mayhem joined the stage for a sing-a-long with Sai. As a massive Trent Reznor (and Johnny Cash) fan, this cover wasn’t for me. I thought musically the arrangement was solid, but the vocals let such a delicate song down. I would’ve liked to see Sai do Starfuckers - it would’ve suited Sai’s voice way more and with the song being about Manson, tie it all in nicely. Burn, Sin and Heresy could’ve worked with the ZCluster sound too.
My excitement for this show doubled when I found out Australian one-man-black-metal stalwart Striborg was the main support. If I could pick one person who comes close to Justin K Broadrick in the Southern Hemisphere, it would be Striborg himself, Russell Menzies.
Despite living in Tasmania, and having a lengthy discography that dates back to the early 90s, this was Striborg’s first Sydney show. I’m not sure what got Menzies to break away from his long-term solitude to play this show, but I’m so glad he did.
Bizarrely, Striborg has a place in my love life too. When I told my partner Justin he was supporting this show, he proudly reminded me that he was wearing a Striborg shirt the night we got together.
“I loved that shirt, I’m not sure what happened to it,” he said, adding he found the shirt at a Salamanca Market stall and was surprised to see Striborg standing in the flesh. I planned to get Justin a new shirt before the night ended, but when I asked Menzies about this he politely said he didn’t have any made as he didn’t think anyone would be here to see him.
Wait, what? A quick look at the crowd of battle vests and black metal shirts, there were definitely some fans about.
I also saw HEALTH bassist John Famiglietti manning the merch desk - not for long as everything quickly sold out. Menzies definitely would’ve sold some shirts tonight if they existed.
Striborg took the stage to a packed house curious to see the black wave pioneer in the flesh.
Like Deafheaven, Ulver and a few others, he’s embraced his New Wave influences in later years. Striborg’s mix of black metal and electronica throughout his set reminded me of Mortiis mixed with a bit of Gary Numan.
His coarse vocals have a soft gentleness that you often don’t hear from this genre. There were points where the music was so meditative, that I felt like I was alone in a Tasmanian forest, not standing next to Troy from Cheap Coffins and 500 other people watching Menzies break dance. At some points this feeling was wonderful, at others it was frightening.
After the set, Troy said he had a similar experience and likened it to The Caretaker’s Everything At The End Of Time, the slow six-hour descent into losing your mind. He’s not wrong.
Menzies’ ability to easily switch from growls to clean singing is a masterclass in vocal range.
In songs like Head in the Clouds, his clean vocals take influence from 80s New Wave - my friend Nick said it’s a bit Flock of Seagulls, but I reckon more Spandau Ballet and Talk Talk.
Either way, I really enjoyed Striborg’s set - many will disagree but for me, it was the show of the night.
LA rockers HEALTH were originally going to be called Medicine but it was already taken. Famiglietti told New Noise Magazine the band hoped to come up with a better name, but after more than a decade they haven’t found one.
Since their last tour of Australia, HEALTH dropped two-part album Disco4 which saw them team up with the creme de la creme of collaborators from NIN, Lamb Of God, Poppy, The Body, Youth Code, Perturbator and Ghostemane.
I wasn’t sure how this would translate live. They can’t just roll out Trent Reznor and Randy Blythe for a one-song sing-a-long. Although, if Bon Iver can get Taylor Swift to do it, anything is possible.
The crowd is warmed up with opening music to Neon Genesis Evangelion Cruel Angel’s Thesis before Famiglietti, vocalist Jake Duzsik and drummer BJ Miller took the stage, diving straight into God Botherer - the start of a Slaves of Fear heavy set.
Duzsik softly sings “Do you ever think about me, how does it feel, what do you think, are you happy?” before Famiglietti and Miller deliver a March Of The Pigs style musical assault.
At this point, Famiglietti starts windmilling his hair, and for the next hour doesn’t seem to stop.
The dance party truly starts with Stonefist, HEALTH’s Bizzare Love Triangle. Duzsik’s vocals on this track sound very Brian Molko of Placebo. The party continues with absolute banger The Message where Miller shows how heavy and aggressive he can hit.
The Miller show continues with a tribal version of Victim. The Death Magic songs in this set - particularly Men Today and New Coke - are where the band’s A Perfect Circle / Maynard James Keenan vocal influence is really noticeable.
When the intro to new song Hateful sounds, a boost of energy injects the crowd. They dance with way more intensity than before. The song is like a grittier, angrier Ladytron and it’s the highlight of the set for me.
Strange Days (1999) is like a harder, faster version of NIN’s Reptile - The Downward Spiral influence is strong with HEALTH. I definitely heard the Somewhat Damaged drumbeat from The Fragile at some point in the night too.
Despite the aggressive lyrics, things calmed down during New Coke before we’re plunged into Body/Prison and Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0 from Disco4. It’s hard not to feel like we’re in some sort of simulation.
While HEALTH is without a doubt flawless live, my one criticism is it can sound a bit too perfect and polished to the point where it feels formulaic. An industrial band can get away with feeling so mechanical, but there were points in this set where I found it difficult to differentiate one song from the next. If they want to rise to the level of their musical predecessors, I’d like to see them break this formula and push the diversity in their sound.
The set started to wane during LA Looks and Tears, but quickly picked up again for closers Feel Nothing and Excess.
HEALTH don’t do encores, which I think is a good choice, as by the end I felt I’d had my fix. By the look of the crowd spilling out of Crowbar, they got theirs too.
HEALTH is in Australia for Dark Mofo.
