ahousenearyou Concert Review

Fantomas - Sunday 19/08/2001 at the Palace - in St. Kilda.
stick your comments in here, or read other's comments

As i sit here and listen the the Fantomas 2nd album i can't help bu think that this review will maybe be the hardest review that we have ever done.

The band
The music of Fantomas defies classification, it is a sort of experimental, eclectic, metal that goes against all the laws of modern music. This is a good thing - however, to describe Fantomas as experimental is not exactly true. Mike Patton has had plenty of time to experiment, with such background as Mr. Bungle and Adult Themes for Voice, he has more like refined this genre (whatever it is called) into a beautiful, threatening artform - is this the new sound of metal? is this the shape that so many upcoming hard bards will adopt? i think not, mainly because it takes a certain talent to produce such music, that for the most part - i am not sure if anyone is capable of imitating.

good exerpt from page 29
"Fantômas is the brainchild of Mike Patton. The name comes from a series of pre World War 1 French crime thriller novels. The character Fantômas is an anti-hero who commits the most apalling crimes.Fantômas is anyone and no one, everywhere and nowhere, waging an implacable war against the bourgeois society in which he moves. The Lord of Terror!"

The gig
in case you are not aware, here is the lineup of the band...

• Mike Patton: Vocals, etc.
  (Mr.Bungle, Peeping Tom, Tomahawk, ex-Faith No More, various solo projects)
• Buzz "King Buzzo", "El Hombre" Osborne: Guitar, etc.
  (Melvins)
• Dave Lombardo: Percussion
  (Grip Inc., ex-Slayer)
• Trevor Dunn: Bass
  (Mr. Bungle, various jazz projects, collaborations with John Zorn and others)

The gig was one of the most amazing things that i have ever experienced. We deliberately miussed the support act which was DJ Kaz (or somethin), fuck DJ Kaz, we were pumped for a crankin piece of Patton action. There were a lot of Slayer Fans there, and they were all so nice. At times there wer chants of "Dave, Dave, Dave". They love that guy.

The gis started with a prejected screen of loads of old movies, like um... the attack of the midgets (i am not sure if this was one, but they were all pretty bizzarro, similar to that), Godzilla Vs The Thing was nother one. This went for quite some time, i think people actually stated getting quite annoyed at it toward the end, as Mike Patton started adding his own little screams into the mix late in the piece. They did a similar thing at the Bungle concert - there was a comedian as a support act, and he was really god damn annoying - but i think maybe that was the point. When the boys finally did make an appearance on stage we all went sick.

And then they started playing... and i lost my breathe.

I must have been the most uncomfortable gig i have ever attended, physically, Jethro and i were viewing from the balcony overlooking the stage, and it was a great vantage point, but we were right in the middle and the was this big table and chair facility in the way, all the people in front of it were sitting down - looking below a big stack of lighting equipment hanging from the roof, Jed and i were right smack bang in the middle of the chairs and stuff, but still had to bob down to see the band - there was no room on the floor to sit, so i ended up standing, and bending over leaning on a stool. I did actually have quite a good view but fuck, it was uncomfortable. WHO CARES! IT WAS FANTOMAS!

Anyway... They busted out into heaps of songs, mainly from the first album Fantomas. This was a really nice surprise, as i thought that this tour would have been mainly to promote the New Album The Director's Cut. The first album is an absolute masterpiece, they seemed to mix it up so that every now and then youw ould get a taste of something that actually resembles the structure of a song (aka The Directors Cut). Buzz and Trevor looked like to 2 metal guys, just standing there in front of this massive Marshal stack - stay pretty damn still, and cranking out their tunes. Mike was a total front man jumping about and juggling 2 mic's, a keyboard, an effects unit and one of those things that you put your hand on to make crazy whirly noises - i have no idea what they are called. Dave Lombardo also did a hell of a lot, this man's job is not an easy one, the percussive track on these albums are certainly not the easiest things to play - he hid behind a shitload of symbols and behind him was a bloody big gong (that he used about 3 or so times during the gig).

This band was working really hard, Mike Patton was pretty much conducting everyones stops and starts the whole time, and they were very tight. The fact that they could even pull this shit off in a live environment blew me away, let alone maintain a tight, great sound the whole time. Oh my god, hese guys are gods.

Funny Highlights included the following

A little dig at Slayer bought the following rant

"so what has been happening in melbourne?

I feel like a fucking house band, i was only here 3 weeks ago. (referring to Bungle)

I hear Slayer are touring.

But we are better than Slayer - and you wanna know why?

I'll tell ya why..."

he then busted into a chant of

"We've got Slayer's Drummer",

which the whole crowd join in with. They know they are cool.

There was also a little talk about how INXS asked Mike to sing for them - he laughed alot about this and even started signing Devil Inside, in the middle of one of the tracks from The Director's Cut.

There was limited banter with the audience, but i guess that is acceptable, they did have a hell of a lot to concentrate on.

The only downfall was the mix - at first it sounded shit-hot, but sadly, as the gig went on, it got louder and muddier. Don't get me wrong, they still sounded damn good, but the mix did seem to get less clear as the night rolled on (or maybe my ears started to overload).

The venue
The Palace is a disgusting place, it is usually home to a rancid bouncy club for club-heads. Jethro and i spoke at length about the venue and (as it were) venues in general hosting this type of band. You almost felt like you should be sitting down and watching this masterpiece unfold around you. There were valiant attempts from the mosh to, well... mosh, but such attempts were generally in vain as the music did not maintain a solid tempo for (usually) more than a few seconds.

We found ourselves on the second level of the venue, watching, crounched (uncomfortably) from a balcony ducking to view the band below a large array of lighting equipment.

The Veridct
I think it is pretty clear how i feel about this band and this gig.

you got something to say about this review
or you want to read what others had to say?
click here

for more info about fantomas check out this site