Infinity Broke blasted their way into the busy Enmore Road in Sydney at the Trocadero Room, offering a far more enticing fare than could be found up the road at the larger Enmore Theatre. Launching their turbo-charged album ‘This Masthead’ (see my review here), the band was preceded by Peter Fonda (sadly missed by me tonight) and the supergroup The Gin Palace.
The latter latter put on a mesmerising performance, one befitting a band playing a stadium, not a bar, playing a sparkling set filled with their anthemic soaring songs. For a band that disclosed they hadn’t performed in a year or indeed rehearsed much, and that was missing their usual keyboard player, it was a tight, punchy and all together much too short a set.
Peter J Fenton (from indie legends Crow) was a mesmerising front person: enigmatic and passionate. I couldn’t help but detect trace elements of the late great David McCombe from The Triffids: part preacher, part crooner. The twin guitar attack of Mark Tobin and Paul McDonald provided a scintillating wall of sound while Marc Lynch’s thundering bass had that Peter Hook melodic brilliance.
Infinity Broke commenced with the thunderous Abject Object from their new album and set the stage on fire. Singer/guitarist Jamie Hutchings (formerly of nineties indie legends Bluebottle Kiss) had a smouldering look that would piece armour with an enigmatic intensity. One of the twin drummers did take up guitars later, but while there were two drums, a bass and guitar, Hutchings’s frenetic playing alone sounded like an orchestra of malevolent guitars, wailing, screaming and animated.
It was a stadium-filling sound: abrasive and assured with trace elements of jazz and more eclectic styles, delivered with controlled chaos and a melodic sparkle that threaded its way through the performance. The guest saxophonist added a ominous glitter to the sound and the drummers a surprisingly and antithetical delicate and nuanced edge to the thunder.
And throughout, Hutchings burned with a scalding strength: creating an element of excitement and danger, a bravura performance from a creative artist.
A perfect launch for an amazing album: the Marrickville Sound personified in the line up.
Make sure you catch the band as they wind up their album launch tour:
Feature Photograph and Gallery: Arun Kendall
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