A dull, gloomy Monday evening on the back of six days of forty degree heat doesn't really provide much in the way of relief. Sometimes all that’s left after the blaze is hollowed out exhaustion. Jinja Safari tried their best to lift the vibe tonight, throwing as much as they could muster at an audience seemingly quite content to just stand around and enjoy the air conditioning.
They’re a strikingly solid live act, and in the right setting (i.e. Peat's Ridge) could be suitably energizing, providing one doesn’t think too hard about the occasional painfully naff lyric. Tonight though their single-minded insistence on the upbeat (the bongo player in particular working himself into a cheerfully oblivious frenzy), coupled with their Peter Gabriel-esque ‘World Music’ veneer (Pepa Knight’s sitar on ‘Peter Pan’ being merely the most obvious example) couldn’t help but fall flat. After a while the ecstatic can’t help but seem forced – or worse, boring.
No such criticism could ever be levelled at Menomena, every song being crammed to bursting with musical ideas. The aggregated loops that comprise their recorded material were transfigured tonight into a tightly honed and fully realised live performance, each element fitting together with atomic clock precision. Presenting material from Friend or Foe (with the notable exception of ‘Evil Bee’ to the chagrin of an annoyingly persistent fan) as well as some of the juiciest tracks from last year’s monumental Mines, the Portland trio (or quartet as they were this evening) were electrifying.
With long-time guitar/sax/vocalist Brent Knopf’s impending (and acrimonious) departure from the group, it wasn’t surprising that intra-band relations were strained. A headcold afflicted Knopf looked haggard, repeatedly slipping back of stage to blow his nose – and throwing his handkerchief around near an apparently shattered Danny Seim, who took none too kindly to such antics occurring anywhere near his drumkit.
When channelled into the music however, such tensions produced a wrenching spectacle, the band pouring their all – Seim particularly transforming himself from a motor-powered demon to a listless bundle of swear-drenched rags between songs – into a music as seamless and original as they are capable of. No wonder they no longer seem to hold anything but a sour tolerance for each other. Aside from remaining dates in other capitals this was probably the last chance for Australian audiences to see this group perform with all founding members intact. A privilege.
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