Friday 14th January – The Bakery, Northbridge : Review by Josh Hoffman

Health. More than a poor mans Fuckbuttons.

As a big fan of genres whose titles take up half a sentence, HEALTH’s loud, post rock-inspired, industrial punk disco would usually be something I enjoy. But there’s something about HEALTHs’ albums that have always irked me. However, seeing them live changed my attitude completely. The mindless nihilism and trendy rehashing of 60’s surf rock that I found so boring on record made a lot more sense played live.

The first thing I noticed when they got on stage was how incredibly young they all looked. Right away the faceless drone I’d heard on album became become a group of boys in their early 20’s, Looking pale, tired and a long way from home.

“Hi. We’re from California.”

Pause. 2, 3, pause, and then BAM! straight into it, smashing out their first note, right on the offbeat, being unexpected in a very expected sort of way. To begin with they played more recent, electronic based work – sticking mainly to songs from their *YEAR album Get Colour. Later on though, fans of their early material were catered for as the band delved back into the catalogue and pulled out some work from their earlier self-titled album.

I could go on and talk about how the band ‘sounded’, but this isn’t what really characterized their performance. It in contrasts like singer and rhythm guitarist Jake Duzsik’s ghetto-hipster appearance and his very androgynous dream-pop vocals that gave their show its a depth. It was only in watching Duzsik sing that I could hear sadness to their music that I had missed listening to their albums.

As to be expected, the drumming was fast and intense. BJ Miller clearly spent some time in his youth listening to the Nords and their double kicks. He looked focused and well practiced. He was the rock that kept the rest of the band from floating away on their own personal seas of noise. From the other end of the rhythm section, John Famiglietti’s bass was solid and added good dimension to the music. He did seem a bit preoccupied with looking pretty and general showmanship at times, but it suited the aesthetic of the band, and it wasn’t so distracting that it interfered with his ability to keep everything tight.

However, it was Jupiter Keyes (who went between guitar, keys, synth and countless effects peddles) performance really knocked me sideways. There was so much energy and violence in his movements that it was hard to keep up. At the same time, he had this still gaze into the middle distance that either showed his complete absorption in the moment, or suggested that didn’t really know where he was. He spent the whole set thrashing himself around, craning his neck and distorting his face – always in time with the music and in perfect response to the sounds he was making. As the music slowed, his pace did the same and as he would ease up, or lean down to engage his synth and you could see his eyeballs rolling around like they were floating free in his sockets.

Towards the end of the set, in last 15 minutes or so, the music softened and became a bit more dancey. The boys looked exhausted and were very clearly ready to finish. They struggled out the last bit and then left the stage for the obligatory encore. When they came back, the finished the show up with ’Courtship’ and the crowed seemed happy enough with their choice of ending.

Despite the embarrassing and typical lack of enthusiasm from most of the crowd, the gig was dangerously fun for those few who wanted to get lose.  Overall, I was pretty amazed. The band put on a show with a sense of depth and animation that I really didn’t expect. Their unabashed pretension somehow paid off.  Unselfconsciously they played the role of a late 2000’s noisy skinny white boy band and successfully made themselves and their very purposeful image as much a part of the performance as the music they were playing.