Last night Plini and friends played to a packed room at the Lion Arts Factory in Adelaide.
Jakub Zytecki kicked things off with an impressive start. It’s not often that this type of music gives people the stank face but there were a few moments throughout this set that did. All three band members were very passionate performers. Particularly Jakub, who appeared to be in a flow state playing with his eyes closed, completely in the moment, and all of his emotion on display.
Their music was mostly instrumental. However some vocals were thrown in here and there, which is a refreshing change for the genre. The most memorable thing from this set was their bass player operating a beat pad and repeatedly hitting some type of 808 bass note that literally made my hair blow back and my body vibrate. It was intense.
Once they were done Sungazer took to the stage in matching outfits. The first thing their bass player said upon walking out was “Wow, I see a lot of nerds in the crowd!”. He was right, we were out in force and it was awesome.
The banter was top notch and they actually managed to get people moving by inviting everyone to join them in doing the ‘Sungazer Two Step’. Two side steps to the right followed by two side steps to the left then repeat. That was the most movement of the night.
They have a sax player that absolutely shreds and it’s the most interesting aspect of this band. Watching him face off with their bass player and guitarist was awesome. Every member off this band are extremely talented. Mixing very technically challenging jazz pieces with a video-game-like electronic backing track and rock/metal guitar solos which led to a hectic performance.
Finally, Plini took to the stage. Walking out and getting straight into it without any hellos or how-do-you-dos. Just powerful playing from start to finish with no mucking around.
The last time we saw Plini live was a couple years ago and the band seemed to be newly formed. One of the funnest things to watch that time was Plini walking up to each band member and intensely testing them on their ability to keep up. He did the same thing this time but not as much. They’re clearly seasoned in playing together at this point and none of the members were even slightly struggling this time round. In fact they seemed to thoroughly enjoy the testing with huge smiles on their face which said “Bring it on!”.
The joy radiating from all the musicians was a common theme throughout the night. Everyone performing was having a lot of fun and it was infectious. Plini’s banter was also very amusing. Instructing everyone not to cheer and to only clap like it’s a theatre hall. Then asking for a moment of silence for the drummer and a collective sigh for the bass player instead of applause.
Towards the end of the performance Plini quipped about the “toxic cycle” with Adelaide shows in which he always doubts whether they should come due to low ticket sales, then on the night there’s a large turnout which reminds him he was right to return. Adelaidians are notorious for not buying tickets until the last minute. It’s why AJ Maddah stopped bringing Soundwave Festival to SA and famously told Dave Grohl not to bother stopping here with the Foo Fighters (as the legend goes). However, we always turn out for killer shows. So please keep coming back.
The night ended with Plini bringing out Jakub Zytecki and the guitarist from Sungazer for an improvised solo session with 4 incredible guitarists going back and forth over an extended period of time. It was like the avengers of lead assembling and it was fascinating to watch them build off each other while instinctively knowing when to join in despite the length of pieces constantly changing. It was an epic ending to a wild night of technical wizardry.
written by Brad Hapke
