Pulled Apart by Horses

After shelling out hundreds of dollars for tickets to Golden Plains, I promised myself that I could survive without sideshows. But of course, when the announcements rolled in it became clear that I was going to have to make an exception. With The Observer decreeing them “the best live band in Britain,” the chance to see Pulled Apart By Horses destroy a tiny room seemed to good to pass up.

Entering the Tote’s band room, I found myself a little stunned by the scene in front of me. The lack of people was certainly a little surprising, but it was the half-naked Vikings on stage that really threw me. Yep, it was the first time I’d encountered Melbourne’s own Barbarion. For the first few songs I actually found it hard to pay any attention to the music. The battle armour, studded leather and assorted weaponry was a bit of a sensory overload, particularly with the large and remarkably hairy 7-piece band jammed onto a pretty small stage. At times the three guitarists and two singers proved a little excessive, but in all fairness each member made solid contributions to the set. The music seemed to work best when sticking to a Motorhead-esque breed of metal, and was pretty enjoyable on its own accord. The band were obviously as surprised as I was that most of the crowd were out in the beer garden, and their lead guitarist capped off the performance by marching outside to deliver them a solo.

Appearing on stage with little fanfare, Pulled Apart By Horses apologised through cheeky smiles for leaving their battle axes in the car, and got right to business. From the very start the entire band moved as one colossally energetic powerhouse, thrashing around the stage violently enough to have surely done themselves damage. After raging opener The Crapsons was greeted fairly quietly by a sleepy audience, lead vocalist Tom Hudson decided to make his way into the crowd. A few seconds later Back to the Fuck Yeah had inspired a respectable mosh pit, and from there on in Hudson and lead guitarist James Brown were in, out and on top of the crowd all night. There’s something fantastic about a band that legitimately loves what they do, and are truly humbled to be touring Australia for the first time. The honesty wasn’t lost on the crowd, about half of whom were sucked into singing along, jumping around and sneaking in a cheeky stage-dive or two amid one of the most fun mosh pits I’ve ever experienced.

For such a small room, the sound was great, and the lack of a large-scale light show was definitely a positive. The sense of total chaos and spontaneity would have been somewhat wrecked with a choreographed light show, and it could only have taken attention away from the band’s raw energy as they ripped through basically all of their debut album. Two new songs made appearances and were devoured happily by a crowd that didn’t seem to familiar with their old material anyway, but it was older favourites such as Meat Balloon and I Punched a Lion In The Throat which stole the show. Beginning Hi Five, Swan Dive, Nose Dive with instructions to hi-five everybody within arm’s reach, the band fed off the positive energy they created, chugging out riffs while crowdsurfing, rolling backwards over stage monitors and somehow landing jumps from atop amplifiers in a kneeling position without shattering knee-caps. Both guitarists finished the set right in the middle of the crowd, pushed up toward the roof by everybody that could reach. If you were right there amongst it, it was one hell of an experience.

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