LIVE: Nick Oliveri – Fremantle, 07 July, 2019

Shane | 4 August 2019 | Reply

LIVE: Nick Oliveri – Fremantle, 07 July, 2019
Mojo Bar, Fremantle, Western Australia
Review & photography by Damien Crocker

You couldn’t complain that you didn’t get your money’s worth if you saw Nick Oliveri, the one-time Kyuss and Queens of the Stoneage and current Mondo Generator and Dwarves member, at Mojos on Sunday night. A contender for the title of hardest working man in rock, Oliveri was on stage giving it his all in three of the four sets of the night across almost three hours, performing solo, and with the Svetlanas and One Inch Men.

Blindspot kicked things off with a sharp set for the early crowd, highlighted by twin vocals, furious drumming and fast punk riffs. Like the first crack of a cold one, Blindspot were the perfect start to the night, opening with Breakfast Beers and ripping through their set with belters like Grabusabeer and the co-incidentally but well titled for the night My Mate Nic.

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Oliveri’s first appearance was in his stripped down Death Acoustic mode, and while the solo set may have been sans electrics, it didn’t miss any of his passion and power as he worked everything he could from his guitar and mic, playing through a selection of his tracks from Queens of the Stoneage (Gonna Leave You/Autopilot), Mondo Generator (Invisible Like the Sky/Smashed Apart) as well as covers of GG Allin and Roky Erickson tribute Bloody Hammer. Downing his guitar, Oliveri delivered an intense, vocal only performance of QOTSA’s Six Shooter to close the set.

With middle fingers raised, the Svetlanas launched onto the stage in a loud, in your face explosion of Russian punk rock. Straight out of the gates, front woman Olga Svetlana is a force to be reckoned with a stream of relentless energy that would leave lesser musicians behind, but the super tight instrumental section of the Svetlana’s charged ahead not missing a beat as they laid down a flawless backdrop for her frenetic performance. Oliveri somehow manages to find himself a space in the mayhem, slotting in on vocals as the newest member of the band. Svetlanas were a real bonus for the night and worth the ticket price alone, hopefully we will see them out this way again soon.

It must be a pretty crazy thing to be a tribute band and headline a show with one of the original members of the band you are covering performing on stage with you, but this was the enviable position One Inch men, Perth’s premiere Kyuss tribute band, found themselves in as they played songs from the Californian desert rockers with their one time bassist Oliveri. Like one big house party, punters were treated to tracks from the seminal stoner band as band members swapped around playing duties, of note One Inch Men bassist Azza looked pretty stoked to be passed Oliveri’s bass to take over playing duties at one point. With things running overtime the setlist was cut short by the 10pm curfew, but with Freedom Run finishing the night no-one could have left not feeling like they hadn’t got their fill.