WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER

The Peep Tempel

Forum Theatre Melbourne 3Nov17

TOTALITY supported. Great musos. Got a big future. Their instrumental bursts with cranking gear changes were a highlight.

The reason why Peep Tempel are so awesome is that they play a game with the audience. A game underscored by the pulsing Cummins-diesoline-like bass of Stewart Rayner with the steady well-smashed beats of Steven Carter leading us, taunting us with his always-dead-on-it-ness, and Blake Scott’s guitar which can be almost anything, sometimes so gratifyingly simple, and others so complex to be blasting out our simple heads. If you, like me, fucking dig some crazy feedback jaunts before a big finish, or cranking back into the song after total disintegration – this was the night for you! Like going from being on dex-amphetamines to acid in eight fucken bars.

They opened with Kalgoorlie.

I can taste the open pit on my tongue…

And the room was heaving like a giant ore crusher in that Wild West town of my youth.

The crowd was a diverse mix. More men than women. At 53, I was happy not to be the oldest bloke there, and my friend was happy to not be the only Asian woman there.

The Peep Tempel delivered to one and all.

A third into the blast-out set they were near the end of the first offering of what Scott called the Trilogy when some violence erupted down the front left of stage.

Peep Tempel slid to a halt like the ore crusher running out of diesel.

They paced.

The security dealt with the situation deftly and with a minimum of fuss.

“ We were going so well before you started punching each other in the fucken face, “ said Scott.This was the tone all evening.

Heavy blasting gut-wrenching rock and roll where a chorus can scream at you:

Pure

Sweet

Joy

 

At the beginning of Trevor and Carol’s Love Story there came this low rumbling from all around us like a grumbling mist rising from the run-off pool at an abattoir. Then I realised what it was. The heaving mass of diversity were singing along with Scott.

I dont wanna be so sanctimonious

I don’t wanna be a negative prick

But I don’t think that Trevor is good for you… Carol

And the room full of Trevor and Carols belted it out. Rock n roll at it’s best. Catharsis is when a whole mess of people feel the same thing at the same time. And for some reason us little humans crave this shit. We’ve been into it for eons. Thumping music where the message is love and redemption. The message is inclusivity. It’s like a poetic jack-hammer working on the concrete built up around our hearts. Hitting you. Hitting you. Hitting you… but with a twist, a wry smile, a beautiful lick in the thumping chaos of the undead punk, a turn of sumptuous language, the language of the people moulded into poetry so we all felt we owned it.

When they cranked out:

I’m a really big fish

Come and swim in my dish

The boys from Totality came on and released a giant blow-up fish into the moshers. The lyrics seem to capture the classic feelings in the hearts of the moshers something akin to Tony Montana’s rave:

First you get the money

Then you get the power

Then you get the woman

And all of us Trevors wondering where we will get the money from. If any of us were thinking about what the Peep Tempel were doing, Blake Scott tried his best to dissuade us – “ If any of you are thinking about starting a band – don’t! There’s enough fucken bands! “

Oh well, back to the drawing board.

The most beautiful song of the night was The Constable, a slow motion drift through the rantings of an outback policeman with latent Travis Bickle tendencies, or maybe not no latent, we are never quite sure.

The Peep Tempel traverse the Australian landscape with ease and tap into real truths seemingly effortlessly. A truly great night. The love between those blokes on stage was palpable. Maybe rock and roll is evolving. Maybe men are changing. Maybe I’ve just been away from it too long.

Friday night Peep Tempel gave us something to believe in. Rock n roll is like life. We’re all in it together. Let’s have some fucking fun. And take care of each other. We’re all in it together.