Tell me, what’s your darkest desire? What if I told you tonight you can live it, and anything is possible? Just let it out honey, it’s good for your HEALTH…
Everyone has a fantasy, a secret itch that begs to be scratched. Perhaps yours lives in the mind’s eye, or maybe it’s just there; edging ever closer, dying to be set free. Whether ready or not, you might be surprised – hiding amongst the shadows, they are closer than they ever seemed. All you have to be is willing, open. What body part is up to you…
A night delicately balanced between whimsical and macabre, L.A. avant-gardists HEALTH descended upon Adelaide for just the second time in their illustrious career. Last gracing our city eight years ago, HEALTH’s snapshot visit just last year saw them tantalise those at Tasmania’s sub-cultural celebration, Dark Mofo. An aesthetic perfectly aligned with the band’s ‘dystopian, painfully horny’ soundscapes, the experience this time has been expanded, taking in five cities over consecutive nights on the completely sold out Australian chapter of their Rat-Based Warfare tour.
With deep respect, the first emotive experience opens on an almost entirely darkened stage. Merely a silhouette under soft-red glow, Melbourne’s conceptual artist KARINA UTOMO opened the sophomore performance with a heartfelt Acknowledgement of Country. Taking the time to convey the gesture’s significance and with fire burning on the backdrop barely adding illumination, the evening’s intensity reached climactic levels exceptionally early. Dim hues barely breaking the impermeability, through flourished flashes of hand and the matriarch’s visceral vocal samples, the stage became shared.
A collaboration several years young, Utomo co-authored tonight’s odyssey with electronic visionary, JOSHUA WELLS. The two’s working relationship growing organically, through shared works and connected live experiences, their duality expressly demonstrates the interpersonal connection between deep bass and industrial metal genres. Hyperfixated to the half-hidden shadows on stage, the debutant act was feverishly fitting for such an occasion. Following non-linear narrative structure, Utomo & Wells were no less than mesmerising.
If still suspended in dreams, one would not be for long, as the enigmatic ZHEANI stormed the stage. A delicate China doll face framed by a pair of charcoaled-Rapunzel plaits, the Brisbane rapper-cum-cult leader had an adoring crowd hanging on striptease, Lie & Look. Veiled fishnet covering just enough skin, she sits akimbo asking, “Do you believe in magic?” Displaying a demeanour somewhat synonymous with the sleight-of-hand associated with the analogised figure, ZHEANI is different.
Repeated embraces, echoes of adoration to the worshipping disciples who scream with increasing vigour suggest this is a reciprocal affair; the obsession is shared. Delicately plucking the microphone stand as one would a petal off the flowers that adorn it, the femme fatale commanded momentarily as if from a priest’s dais, delivering sermon through song, before gyrations revealed her seductively sinful heart. ZHEANI is the definition of duality, infinitely cool with the heat of an incendiary explosion. With one half of her body stocking and Napalm dropped, the promise to Bring Wet Cunt was executed with shocking efficacy.
Saturation point being reached already, it seemed unimaginable to reach further climax, yet that would drastically undermine the potent magnetism of headliners HEALTH. The culmination of all the night’s blood, sugar, sex and pure magic, the industrial-cum metal kings proved Men Today, at least of this particular ilk, are still the most desirable addiction. Driven by appeals of visual audio sensory theatre, the cinematic wonder of HEALTH heralded: it was time to bring to life to the wildest of fancies.
Across a prolonged setlist, the tantric love affair stretched and ached for some 80 minutes. Representing cumulative years together as a band, each track brought more pleasure than the last under the Lion Arts cloisters. A metaphorical representation of the surging sexual tension, bodyheat proved physically measurable, photographic bands capturing HEALTH’s members’ auras of royal purple and blue, reflecting the sensuality of the act as equally as the energies emitted outwards upon the voyeurs below.
A celebration of the group’s sixth and most recent album, the hallowed threesome explored intimately the length of RAT WARS. Penetrating deeply the breadth of their unique discography also, the performance was shared in individual ways and as a symbiotic relationship. Thrusting his synonymously worn cat’s ears into the crowd, Johnny Famiglietti changed positions almost uncontrollably between multiple sampling desks. Lustrous black locks cascading while gently thumping on the strings of bass, behind the Demigod himself, B.J. Miller, opened wide the drumkit, keeping time, pace and step, sensing the energy and when it needed additional stimulation.
The heaven-on-earth vocalisations of Jake Duzsik were purely orgasmic. The only human trustworthy with reimagining the airy aesthetic of Chino Moreno on DEFTONES’ iconic Be Quiet and Drive, there barely seem enough words to describe the ecstasy that’s induced by each of these powerful entities in combination. No bravado, no false encore, HEALTH’s dance is an intimate embrace that leaves their partners breathless in the most tender of ways. Their ethereal music impossibly and beautifully conveyed in the live experience, the performance pure rapture.
Like waking still heavy with wonder from a dream filled with such peace and warmth, it seemed unfairly sudden to return to reality. Desperate to relive the reverie, the only recompense a world awaiting between bedsheets. Perhaps alone, maybe with another, one thing is certain – it is always with our fantasies, no doubt set tonight to this sensual soundtrack.
