LIVE @ The Workers Club, Melbourne, VIC – Saturday 30th April 2022

Written by: Rod Whitfield - Independent | Monday 2 May 2022

So very much to like about this night. One, the fact that live music is back in a big way after two years of the Covid fiasco. Two, the venue is very solidly packed at 8.30pm for the opening act, which is always fantastic to see. Three, late in THE OMNIFIC’s set, the band announces the entire night is sold out, which is even more brilliant for three Aussie alternative bands, two of which are all-instrumental.

Many others are different, but I always love seeing the name of a band I’ve never heard of on a live bill I’m seeing. The discovery of new music is one of the true joys in life, and tonight I am not let down. Melbourne four-piece WALLET INSPECTOR (strange name, wonder what it means) smash out 30 minutes of techy, riffy, all-instrumental metal. Their compositions are snaky and labyrinthine and brutishly muscular at the same time, with moments of washy ambience thrown in to provide some sweet and welcome light and shade amongst the vocal-free carnage. Like any proggy instrumental band worth their salt, this band possesses a precision instinct as to when to pull back dynamically, when to have all instruments punching together as one and when to have them intertwining and creating a powerful tapestry of sound. Their songs are long and involved and feature many moments of searing, shredding melodic lead guitar work.

WALLET INSPECTOR are approaching virtuoso level, and are ideal for people who dig their metal without all those pesky vocals getting in the way of the music.

Next up is the only band on tonight’s bill featuring said pesky vocals. Except in INTROSPECT’s case, their vocals aren’t pesky at all, they are powerful and enjoyable. In fact, as if in reaction to the rest of the bill, they have vocals laid on. The band features two singers, one female (who unfortunately gets lost in the mix at times), one male, plus backups, and the twin-guitar, twin-vocal lineup has a little difficulty fitting on the tiny Worker’s stage. You might say it’s a tour de force of the voice, and the two main voices are highly contrasting and yet absolutely complimentary at the same time, the screaming male and the soaring melodic female vocals offsetting each other beautifully.

Like WALLET INSPECTOR, this band knows when to slam together and when to interweave, it’s just that they do it with their vocals.

Their sound could be described as alternative heavy rock to metal, and it’s a sound designed to be played live. INTROSPECT’s blistering 30-minute set flashes by in the blink of an eye, their closing song quite triumphant, and the two openers have truly whet the heaving crowd’s appetite for tonight’s main course.

THE OMNIFIC. What an enigma, what a unique offering, what a beacon of distinctiveness on the Australian musical landscape. I’m not suggesting the two bass guitars and drums lineup has never been done before, but to my knowledge it’s never been done quite like this before. And the best thing about it is, they’re all ours. This needs to be celebrated.

This night, they go all out for the sold-out crowd, bringing in funky extra lighting to add to the atmosphere (which was apparently the reason for a 20-minute delay to the start of their set and doesn’t actually start working til around halfway through their set).

To base an entire band on the bass guitar, it’s an absolute gimme that the bassists have to be able to play, and play extraordinarily well, and THE OMNIFIC’s two ‘frontmen’ certainly can. But it’s their compositions that really shine. Their songs are fun, cohesive and highly listenable pieces of music, sometimes funky as fuck, sometimes heavy, sometimes jazzy and even fusiony, sometimes dancey and sometimes washy and atmospheric. They do just about anything you can think can be done with a bass guitar, sometimes their guitars are strummed, sometimes plucked, sometimes slapped and popped up a storm. Sometimes a riff is based on a tapping sequence. Every so often they are played as a lead instrument.

Sometimes the music is wistful and whimsical, sometimes it is heavy and driving. But it is always entertaining. Their music is not just for people who like esoteric, non-vocally oriented experimental music and the bass guitar.

The Omnific’s set tonight relies heavily on tracks from their recent album, Escapades, as you would expect, this being the (delayed) tour in support of that release. They open with the two singles from the album, Antecedent and Wax and Wane, before deftly pounding their way through over 60 minute’s worth of basstastic bliss that sends the capacity crowd into paroxysms of joy.

Oh, and the drums sound crisp and powerful tonight too. We must not forget the percussive bedrock that holds it all together.

After more than an hour, the band leaves the stage and the crowd is in heaven, knowing they have just borne witness to something very special indeed.

The Setlist

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