BARONESS // To The Purple Born

BARONESS + Greig – 8 December, 2016 – The Triffid, Brisbane

As the Triffid’s beer garden fills up with mortgage brokers or real estate agents having their work Christmas parties, heshdogs in Eyehategod t-shirts (pls donate to Mike IX’s medical bills if you can) start to fuck up what would otherwise be a tip-top networking opportunity.

Thankfully for people who think professional networking was for sure one of Dante’s innermost circles of hell, Brisbane’s Grieg have a set of anti-social sludge on hand. With an ear towards Amphetamine Reptile noise masquerading as art, the band’s huge sound easily fills up the Triffid’s main room.

Now that Baroness have a pretty diverse catalogue, fans can just follow the lighting queues for their favourite tracks. As the lights shift from purple to green to blue and then red, so do small sections of the crowd to hear their favourite material.

When other bands who so drastically changed their sounds would draw criticisms of selling out, Baroness are beyond reproach.

That’s what is so confounding about tonight’s set; there’s no clear crowd favourite. Usually a crowd wants to hear only the freshest record, or conversely just the tried and true hits, but tonight it seems like they’re keenly receptive to whatever the quartet choose to offer up. Sure, there’s a lot of the stadium power rock that makes up Purple, but when Baroness go all the way back to the murky sludge of Red Album, the crowd’s enthusiasm verges upon feverish.

When other bands who so drastically changed their sounds would draw criticisms of selling out, Baroness are beyond reproach. No matter what the style, the band manages to hit their mark. A lot of that has to do with how tight front man John Baizley and guitarist Pete Adams manage to be. The crowd has to marvel at how the duo can compliment each other through the delicate passages of Insert Title but then can lock in to make cuts like The Gnashing sound fucking monolithic. As Baizley’s bellows reverberate throughout The Triffid, the crowd comes to be motionless as though at a showgaze show. But such is the appeal of Baroness, they can make a metal show feel like a subdued, introspective rock show as expertly as they can make a display of pedalboard wizardry feel as rowdy as a metal show.

It reassures the crowd that whatever palette Baroness choose for their next album, the band’s talent is going to shine through whatever filter they apply.

Catch Baroness at the following remaining shows of their Australian tour
Limited tickets available here.

Friday December 9, Prince Bandroom, St Kilda VIC
Monday December 12, The Gov, Adelaide SA
Tuesday December 13, The Amplifier Bar, Perth WA