Mammal

I think Darwin had something when he espoused all his theories of survival of the fittest. And it’s quite relevant that his theories of evolution all pointed to one, unmistakable truth. Mammal are going to take over the world. While I’m pretty sure it was the plural good ol’ Chuck was talking about, really, he got it right on both counts.

Venturing out into the wilds of Sydney’s Kings Cross on a Friday night I found myself at Candy’s Apartment, all primed and ready for the raw awesomeness that is Mammal. Just as an aside, Candy’s Apartment itself is worthy of it’s own review – this place is a cavernous, underground room where the ceiling is within touching distance, people packed in shoulder to shoulder, and sound so loud and reverberating I’m pretty sure I haven’t heard properly since. It was awesome.

Back to the task at hand, for those of you out there who haven’t seen Mammal you really need, to coin a Meldrumism, to do yourself a favour. This is a four-piece band hailing from Melbourne, but they seem to play a show in Sydney and around the traps every couple of months. This is one of the hardest working bands in Oz, and the following they’ve built up in about 12 months is testament to that. Still to release a full-length album, and built on the strength of a five track EP and a live release, these guys pack out a room every time I’ve seen them and once you’ve seen the show, you’ll realise why.

Getting off to a sluggish start, the exuberantly energetic front man, Ezekiel Ox started off with a cracking version of ‘Hell Yeah’, only to have to begin again after a slight stage malfunction. After a pause filled with banter, once these guys got going, all was forgotten and forgiven, and the magic began. Their funk-metal-rock set included the likes of ‘Slave’ and ‘New Breed Judas’ which all got the packed in crowd bopping on their feet. It’s hard to keep your fists at your side when the guys kick into crowd favourite “Think” – and the cheering that met lyrics “I know what you’re thinking – Kevin Rudd, John Howard, it’s all the same thing. I know what you’re thinking!” was something to be seen.

A Mammal show usually contains a number of similar elements, and this was no exception. All the band shirtless – check. Ezekiel working the crowd from inside the crowd – check. Crowd surfing – check. Unfortunately, no mirror ball helmet this time (trust me – this is something to be seen!), but I’m pretty sure I caught an eyeful of full-frontal nudity, so you win some, you lose some I guess. This was all coupled with some delightful on-stage gymnastics (Ezekial wrapping himself around some piping on the ceiling and singing from there), some cracking bass courtesy of Nick Adams, some sweaty and pumping guitar from Pete Williamson, and some thumping, remorseless drum action from Nick Rosanoski.

Couple all of this with the band’s notorious banter - some inciting (“This song is for all you homophobic racist dickheads. What I want you to do is stay, listen to this song, and then f*ck off”), and some inspiring (“Everything’s a cookie cut-out – I want John McEnroe, not Roger Federer”), and you’ve got yourself a live experience that the Australian music scene has been wont to see in quite some time. Hating to draw comparisons, instead I urge you to go and see these guys. Really, this is the band you’ll be telling your kids about. Darwin was right. Mammal is going to take over the world.

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