Brisbane duo Elko Fields are hyped to do big things, but the massive hometown crowd at Lefty’s showed big things are deservedly happening for them right now.
Opening with a bang was local duo The Royal Artillery, whose riffs packed more firepower than their namesake. Every song felt like an explosion, but the duo’s finale was a knock-out of a guitar being swung and stomped on, and drums battered within an inch of their life. The crowd’s call for more was strong, but there were still more bands to come.
Melbourne band A Gazillion Angry Mexicans’ name imaginatively describes what you can expect to hear. Really a quartet, their racing stoner rock sounded it like it came from a much larger group. The band put lots of power into their hard-hitting tunes that turned the crowd into a mosh. New single “All My Friends Are Dead” was a ball of energy, causing the venue’s lights to flicker. If that’s not powerful, I don’t know what is.
Lefty’s was bursting before headliners Elko Fields took the stage, with fans squeezed together in front of the stage, and more hanging from the balcony above. Dressed in black, the duo of Kella Vee and Jhindu-Pedro Lawrie oozed cool all over the stage they prowled.
Kella’s guitar snarled riffs that were ready to fight with Jhindu-Pedro’s heavy wacks throughout, getting hips shaking with tunes like the chugging “Never Slow Down”. Even with just three hours of sleep and a few swigs from a tequila bottle, the band’s energy lived up to the song-title’s promise of never slowing down.
The pair’s hit “Cough It Up” was a monster; less a cough and more a roar. The crowd was a blur of hair whipping thanks to the song’s stack of hooks. I usually stand towards the back during gigs, but at this point I realised I was at the foot of the stage all night, gladly losing control to their grimy rock.
It was only the band who was surprised by the deafening call for an encore. Elko Fields hadn’t disappointed, and they weren’t going to start now. They ripped through moody new single, “Delores Part Two”, basking in the love coming from the audience.
Elko Fields are mighty band, and will surely be the talk of the town thanks to the huge number of new fans they’ve won. You better get on the Elko Fields train before there’s no more room to fit.
Photo by Ben Knight. Find out more about the band here.
The reviewer attended this show on August 12th.
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