Saturday 8th March
Metro
Roma Room Sydney
Account by Chris Gardiner (guitars/vocals)
(Pics Below)
Saturday the 8th was welcomed with much excitement from the Scrum camp. We were looking forward to this one. The Roma room is fucking awesome. It has a great vibe, an upstairs balcony area, a great location and a six foot high stage!
One Shot Kill were first up. Having being greatly let down by their guitarist, they took to the stage as a three piece with only bass, drums and vocals to fill out their sound. Circumstances as they were, they did a fine job. Playing an obviously shortened set, OSK thrashed along as though nothing were different. The lack of a guitarist let Bolton's (their bass player) sound loose on the early crowd with great results. Janger (drums) was brutal as always and gaz screamed as loud as usual and I'm sure, managed to convince most of the punters that they've never had a guitarist at all.
Thanks to OSK's short set, we had a relatively relaxed set up. Thanks to the cramped nature of the backstage area, Jacko needed the extra time to set his kit up from scratch on the stage. For the first time ever, we started our set on time, on the dot of 9:30pm.
This time around, we decided to mix the set up a little and we opened with "Nero", our instrumental. Basically, the set went something like this:
Nero, Running From Life, Conform, Slutbag, When It Ends, Neck, Slowest Suicide, No life Low Life, Disgrace Looms & Master Of Puppets.
That's right, "Master Of Puppets". We've been working on "Master" for a while now and we've had it ready to go for the last few gigs, but this time the crowd response to our set was good enough to play one more....and it went down really well.
Kyser's turn. They belted out all their oldies as well as a new one and played as brutal as always. Their fans, like me, weren't sure whether to mosh or just watch as this was possibly the last time they'd see them. Most them moshed, I chose to watch a song or two from each vantage point. Back at the desk, right up the front, in the middle of the mosh, and up in the balcony area. An awesome show.
look, all I can say is that when bands or band members loose heart in what they're doing, it's one of the biggest tragedies imaginable, especially with bands like Kyser. The scene has changed allot since they began way back in 1995, I know, I was there with them. Since then, bands like Segression, Cryogenic, Psi-Kore, Frankenbok and Red Sands, just to name a few, have burst onto and fizzled out from the scene, but Kyser stayed strong. They grew with every recording, tour, performance and line up change to come out the other side playing the best they ever have on recent dates. Last Saturday was no exception. Kyser filled out the large, tall stage and looked like any smaller a stage would never suit them again. They belonged there. These guys would only have gotten better, but I guess, now we'll never know.
Bands that I've been in, in the past, have been guilty of building up then fizzing out, but I have a feeling this time is going to be different. Scrum is ready. In 2003 we'll be releasing our debut album "DROP", we'll have bumper stickers, high quality t-shirts & key rings. We'll play shows in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and plenty of places in between. With new gear a plenty, our live sound will get better and better. Make sure you all stick with Scrum in 2003 and into 2004.
Scrum it up!
Chris.
