Music Vice: Primal Scream at Metropolis, Fremantle, Australia

Primal Scream at Metropolis, Fremantle
Concert review and photos by Music Vice contributor Danny Crombie - February 15, 2009

Walking into the venue, a sign on the door said “support cancelled”, and the next hour and a half was spent looking out onto an empty dance-floor surrounded by people like a school disco. The soundtrack to our wait featured weird and wonderful songs, including two plays of Neil Young’s Heart of Gold. Probably not the best choice to get people in that rockin’ mood, but more evidence of just how much Aussie's adore Neil Young. (Check out the review of Big Day Out for more on Young).

Eventually, after a long wait, Primal Scream took to the stage to rapturous applause and broke out into Kill All Hippies. Bobbie Gillespie appeared like a suave Joey Ramone, albeit about a foot shorter but with an uber cool aura.

Primal Scream at Metropolis, Fremantle, Australia - photo by Danny Crombie

The rest of the band looked totally in tune with each other and the guitarists complimented each other well. It looked like they were trying out new things as they were playing and really enjoying themselves.

The band's light show is a totally photographer unfriendly one - all backlit and flashing. I practically gave up on getting a good photo straight away and enjoyed the best, more ear splitting view in the house whilst taking half-arsed photos.

"I felt my hips shaking, my fist pumping and my head bobbing along to every beat. "

Primal Scream are a band that don’t like to keep doing the same thing for too long and played an eclectic set full of dance, techno and good old rock n’ roll. They played classics like Miss Lucifer and new tunes including Beautiful Future and Swastika Eyes to a good reception.

The music they play is on a primal level, with songs you can really get lost in and boogie along to; even if you don’t know the songs. I felt my hips shaking, my fist pumping and my head bobbing along to every beat.

"The atmosphere reached some kind of heady musical-induced delirium when the band played Moving On Up – the ultimate junkie gospel."

That same feeling was shared throughout the moment, and it reached some kind of heady musical-induced delirium when the band played Moving On Up – the ultimate junkie gospel. There was a sense of togetherness, or perhaps people reminiscing about the good old days before The Kaiser Chiefs and My Chemical Romance. We've been lucky that bands like Primal Scream have stuck around into this decade - the scene would have been pretty grim were it not for some of the old school reminding us of how it's actually done.

The last song of the set Rocks turns the mood again and gets the place jumping. After a whole set of looking like a dour bastard Gillespie has a smile on his face and shares the enjoyment felt by the audience.

After a short break Primal Scream take to the stage and play four more songs, including the smash hit Country Girl as we all jump around like maniacs for a bit more before exiting into the night.

Danny has currently relocated himself from Scotland to the sunnier climate of Perth, Western Australia. Visit Danny's site at www.dannycrombie.co.uk to check out his music and photography.