Andy J Ryan Mar 26, 2023

Eddy Current Suppression Ring - The Hopetoun Hotel, 18 November 2006

Sometimes great gigs just happen on their own. In this case, no expectations, no fanfare, no hype - just three particularly good bands playing the Hoey on a sticky Sydney Saturday night.†
The Pink Fits fronted up first. The band has a lineage back to the revered sludgy stoner-fuzz of Tumbleweed but shares no real sonic connection. This is a band with no spare time for guitar solos or extended jamming; they are intense, precise and tight as a duck's arse. Propelled by a drummer whose playing was so frantic that his hands were barely perceptible blurs, the 'Fits fired, each member drawing on a deep well of musical knowledge with the best riffs, hooks, rhythms, fills and beats of all musical time seeping through them and into their bombastic songs. It was primal and urgent and served to perfection with extra volume and beer on the side.
Witch Hats were the difficult middle child of the night. While undoubtedly talented and musically accomplished, the songs detoured and deviated like a lost cabbie. The band almost seems to have too much going on at once, with members veering off on plenty of unrestrained tangents. They are angular, jagged and frustratingly interesting.
In Melbourne's Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Australia seems to have found its next quality pub-rock band. In a similar vein to Sydney's Peabody (whose members were in attendance to witness the bearers of their legacy), this band is a down-to-earth bunch of mates fantastically attuned and singing about stuff. Real stuff. The everyday battle to get out of bed, not having enough money, wanting ice cream, meeting a lass, having dreams and thoughts about this lass and all the other crap that real people endure during their days. You nod along because you're empathising with it, then you keeping nodding along because the music is so solid. You wonder why the singer is wearing black rubber gloves, but then you don't care because it's Saturday night, you've had a few beers, there's a bloody great rock band playing and there ain't no place you'd rather be.