Decoder Ring w/ Bridezilla - The Metro, Sydney (28th Aug, 2009)

Touring in support of latest release ‘They Blind the Stars, And the Wild Team,’ Sydney favourites Decoder Ring hit the Metro for a night of vivid soundscapes with support by Bridezilla. Soulshine was on the floor for the gig as Max Easton writes.

It didn’t take very long at the Metro to see how much Decoder Ring have been missed. Piles of people crammed themselves into whatever crook they could where the rest of the masses filled the crannies; if it wasn’t a sell-out, the Metro’s OH&S people must have been screaming for one – this was a busy night. Coming off the back of a much talked about set at Splendour, the new and improved version of Decoder Ring has had mouths running these past few months, and those mouths seemed to have all made their way along to Sydney to see the hype for themselves.

Rounding out the lead-up to the big act were two other Sydney locals in the form of new kids on the block Seekae and fresh out of school indie favourites Bridezilla. The latter act provided some of the highlights of the night; with saxophone and violin driving distorted guitars and thunderous drums from the back, all with Holiday Sidewinder’s unique growl smothering the fuzz. Despite sometimes overwhelming themselves with a distorted wall of sound, their grunge-infused, energised brand of indie was a phenomenal sonic experience. Hallmark tracks like ‘Brown Paper Bag’ and ‘St Francine’ were taken on with such fervour as to remove ones socks with rock. Bridezilla were an awesome way to lead into a Decoder Ring set, it left the aforementioned crooks and crannies breathless, but in anticipation.

Decoder Ring’s signature video overlays kicked off their set; an introductory look at filling space with repeating lines and shapes accompanied the overture before the all-male current line-up took the stage and began to hammer out the tunes. Note-for-note renditions of album tracks were punched out one after the other to rapturous applause, with new tracks from ‘They Blind The Stars...’ mingling almost unnoticed with older favourites. Whilst the visuals ran juxtapositions of micro-organisms, platelets and the beginnings of life with large-scale natural events like storms, fires and explosions, the music took a similar path. Soaring electronic sound-scapes crossed downbeat melodic interludes with repetitive beats running underneath courtesy of a Macintosh. Decoder Ring are absolute masters at crafting huge aural pursuits, and nothing proved this more so than their upscale set of frolicking tunes. However, with the recent departure of vocalist Lenka Kripac, there’s little left to grab audience attention amongst all the phenomenal sounds and visuals flooding the stage. The songs tend to mesh into each other to the point of almost becoming too cohesive. They become indistinguishable, and with nothing but distractions provided by the projector screen, it’s hard to pay attention to what’s going on. There’s so much going on that it becomes hard to follow; it’s like watching Schindler’s List for the first time. On speed.

With the right mindset though, the gig would have taken a turn to the amazing. There are certainly more than a handful of substances known to man which would be the perfect environment for Decoder Ring. They’re a full band DJ set playing nothing but good stuff, which I have the utmost respect for. With a bit of luck, we’ll get more chances to catch these guys in the near future. With ‘They Blind the Stars, And the Wild Team’ doing extremely well and live shows selling tickets by the bath load, Decoder Ring will be loving their exposure and increasingly loving fan-base and rightly so. They’re not just a force to be reckoned with, they’re a force that does all the reckoning; one 10 minute track at a time.