Health

Fri 26 Feb 2010 ,

Gigs,

Music

Critics' choice
3
Health
Improved image coming soon!
First published on . Updated on 5 Apr 2011.

This event has finished

Review: Here are some theories about Oxford Art Factory with regard Health's set. Theory number one: there is a critical audience mass required to make the room sound good. The evidence for this comes from previous sold-out gigs where the mix was exemplary (crisp, clear, well-balanced) compared with this decently-full-but-not-rammed show where the mix was all over the shop.

Theory number two: Health are just difficult to mix, which seems equally likely since they're incredibly loud, all of their sounds are processed to hell (guitars do not, as a rule, sound like running a laser across sheet metal) and that much of the night involved at least one person screaming while two played drums. That being said, the magic of the band live, as on record, is when all that noise congeals into an actual song, as on 'Die Slow' – although minimal moments like 'In Violet' worked well too. However, the fact that the band were insanely lively (especially John Famiglietti, who danced more often than he struck an instrument) didn't quite make up for the set barely cracking an hour, even with an encore.

One note on support act Royal Headache: there are a lot of reasons why they were the wrong choice for the night, not least that the band have a Jam/early Stone Roses thing going on that sat badly with Health's noisecore-meets-shoegaze sound, but also because their lead singer is clearly under the impression that he's in a hardcore band rather than a British-influenced guitar pop combo. Thus there was a lot of incongruous stage prowling, shadow boxing and the baseless assumption that the audience would be interested in knowing that "I feel like fucking shit tonight". That he wasn't feeling his best might explain why he couldn't hit a correct note for the first half of the set, although the vocals did noticeably improve once he decided to jump into the crowd, suggesting that the problem was in the foldback rather than the vocalist. When all the elements came together, as on the closing ‘Eloise’, Royal Headache were competently derivative; the rest of the time they were nowhere near that good. Andrew P Street

More gigs, concerts, bands and music in Sydney? Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Health details

Oxford Art Factory


Address
38-46 Oxford St

Darlinghurst 2010

Telephone 02 9332 3711

Date Fri 26 Feb 2010

Open 8pm

Oxford Art Factory details

Oxford Art Factory map


     If this map or venue details are incorrect then please Contact Us

Related to Health

Restaurants near Oxford Art Factory

Downtown at The Commons

Rustic cuisine, retro cocktails and intimate digs.

Pablo's Vice

Just off the vintage fashion stretch of Crown Street you'll find the...

Verde

Stanley Street is known for a few venerable hits and plenty of misses – it...

Lucio Pizzeria

The Lucio is the pizzeria's crowning glory, and its answer to the...

Joe Black

Tucked up on the business end of Commonwealth Street, this little café...

Food Society

The Food Society is Sydney’s newest dining and catering establishment,...

Bars & pubs near Oxford Art Factory

Doctor Pong

In sad news for Sydney drinkers, Doctor Pong – Darlinghurst's quirky bar...

The Commons

If you’ve any interest at all in the whole small bar revolution, you’ll...

13B

Sitting in the middle of Burton Street’s small bar cluster – the...

Uchi Lounge

  With ninja-like stealth, this two-level Japanese...

Pocket Bar

Pocket has matured into a sophisticated cocktail den. The queues still...

Shady Pines Saloon

"Whiskey, rye, snatch?" When you enter this new Surry Hills bar,...

Other venues near Oxford Art Factory

Readers' comments

Community guidelines

blog comments powered by Disqus
 


© 2007 - 2012 Time Out Group Ltd. All rights reserved. All material on this site is © Time Out.