Friday 25 February, 2011 – Review by David Sayers

The hot summer air was thick with anticipation as INJURED NINJA fans made their way to The Bakery to witness the band launch the long-awaited debut album ‘Injured Ninja vs. Skylazer’.

DJ DIGER ROKWELL set the tone of the evening early with a smooth blend of electronic dub sounds that could only be described as ‘the perfect dinner soundtrack for cyborgs.’ Familiar and soothing, his grooves served as a precursor to the sonic mayhem that would eventually ensue, and kept the fires stoked between the live bands’ sets.

First on stage the four scruffy looking lads of MILE END. The front row was immediately struck by the agonized, bluesy vocals of lead singer Dean Anthonisz and the heavy hitting beats of drummer Jerome Turle. Reverb drenched guitars filled the room with a rich, melancholic rock sound and although the band began with an unwelcome looseness, a united confidence on stage saw them through to a blistering second half. By the time Mile End hit its last note, the lion’s share of the two-hundred- plus attendees had arrived. A raucous applause upon finish confirmed that the night had just gotten serious.

There was some confusion amongst those in the beer garden as Brisbane solo artist AXXONN began playing his eerie dance music for the affected, his opening track was so similar in tone to DJ Diger Rockwell that many didn’t realise that he’d started. However, those who had filtered back towards the stage were rewarded with passionate, uplifting synth tunes that were punctuated with steady drum machine blasts. Virtually an unknown to those in attendance, Axxonn won the crowd over with hypnotic energy and catchy electro-hooks.

NAIK was bathed in fluorescent light as the two-piece played amongst a visual backdrop of multi-coloured mushroom clouds. The audience quickly got its dance on, moving like puppets on strings to dreamy guitar leads, melodic vocal samples and oriental instrumentation. Frontman Sam Price seemed to be lost within his own creation, at one point he thanked the crowd for enduring his ‘self-indulgent guitar solos’ and at another he stopped the song entirely, admitting that he had forgotten how to play it. However, these bumps in the road were quickly overridden by a crowd of psychedelic hitchhikers that were hungry for more.

There was no doubt who the headline act was as Injured Ninja showcased the entirety of their eleven track debut album to a sea of devoted followers. Early highlight ‘Fallopian Tube Screamer’ ignited the stage as singer/guitarist Stephen Aaron Hughes pumped out the track’s signature riff amongst rasping screams and childlike whispers. Singer/bassist Dominic Pearce provided much of the onstage energy during the groups hour long performance, while Jake Steele lurked in the background, his gurgling synth added a layer of bleak, robotic suffering to the band’s sonic landscape. Drummer Matthew Bairstow was also in exceptional form, annihilating his drum kit with an almost inhuman precision. By the time the band reached ‘Lull/Labyrinth’, a backlit screen burst to life with apocalyptic visuals of crimson skies and crumbling cities, penned by the bands longtime collaborator/artist Peter Long. The sweat drenched audience were captivated by a bombastic Injured Ninja, who finished with an encore performance of ‘IDDQD’ with added percussion from Tayo Snowball and members of Mile End, which built a to a rhythmic crescendo before the band left the stage in a mesh of musical feedback.

TOMÁS FORD had no easy task ahead of him, the crowd was exhausted from the previous four bands and time had bled into the early hours of Saturday morning. However, the slick haired electro-pop artiste quickly delved into an array of low-fidelity tunes as he shepherded audiophiles towards the front of the stage with all the charm of a dangerous cult leader. He leapt into the beer garden for a rendition of ‘Creep’ by RADIOHEAD and slow danced with a female fan to DAVID BOWIE before he disappeared behind a curtain, a strange and curious epilogue to an incredible evening.