6 Mile High; Lounge; Surveyor 4
Planet
July 27, 1996

Picture, if you will ... the dark Planet innards dusted with stage smoke, brilliant streams of coloured light cutting the fog, the chamber full of 6 Mile High flunkies bounding to the beats and, through the floor from the basement below, the physical rumble of Napalm Death flexing their vocal chords for hundreds of extreme metal fans.

While some upstairs felt a little uneasy, envisaging the stage show below to involve indie kids having their heads bitten off, I'm happy to report there were more than a couple of lads from downstairs fisting the air to 6 Mile High in the later stages of the mellee to follow.

Enter the single member of Surveyor 4 (who may well have been Paul from Luna Magnet, Hum and DFL, an old sparring partner of 6 Mile's Travis Calley and Andrei Maz, though this is stretching my memory a bit), skulking at the side of the stage with enough sonic hardware to pilot the space shuttle by. Sequenced blips and junglish rhythms, sub-human bass thuds and sampled ranting, the appreciative crowd flashed their watch lights back at him in mutual understanding.

A short break brought the six members of Lounge to the stage, their entourage including two bass players, a bongo hitman and the choice addition of a clunky keyboardist and turntable scratchman. Very groovy and snap jazzy for about the first three songs, the formula continued to become somewhat snoozy as the tempo stayed fixed throughout the set. But with bass riffs at the top of the neck sounding like a big 'ol Rhodes, I'm there next time.

The final 6 Mile High gig in Perth for a long time was both mega-stadium and multi-levelled dance party material, the set of the year so far. Guitars and technology hummed in a physical wall of sound with all six elements leaving the ear to choose which dreamy tone to listen to. Andrei's deft tamborine fondling struck the pose of seducer and shmoozer. And Travis' Microbee (or whatever that ancient computer box is) blipped without meltdown!

With new material aplenty, the stunning Scratches, Big Fun and (of course) Homebaker as hits, mine wasn't the only bellybuton top torn off and resting at the feet of Kez Lucas. Epic. And they will get bigger.

Adam Connors

The West Australian is W.A.'s state newspaper. The versions appearing here are the unedited versions which were subsequently edited for space, clarity and reality for publication by editors Sue Yeap and Ara Jansen. Italicised comments in the body of the reviews/interviews - if present - are the notes I sent to the editors to clarify certain situations such as missed deadlines, personal disasters or simple non sequitur, which always makes for good reading.

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