Live Review: Ty Segall & Freedom Band @ Metro Theatre, Sydney

There’s clearly still a place for garage rock. Ty Segall & Freedom Band are a bridge to that bygone era of '70s glory days in which bands like Black Sabbath ruled supreme. The lyrics are stripped back and esoteric, designed to add another melodic overlay to the heavy wall of sound.

Back in Australia for the first time since 2014, Segall and band are eager to show nuance through a diverse show which seems to build from the opening acoustic track which saw the band leader emerge solo before he was joined by rhythm guitarist, Emmett Kelly. 

The Metro crowd really didn’t take to the acoustic opening as laughter and chatter filled the room while Segall and Kelly harmonised their hearts out on the first four tracks. It was certain that the audience hadn’t come for folk and the acoustic antics solicited little satisfaction for a crowd eager for head-banging.

As the rest of the band took to the stage and drum fills filled the space the laughter died out and was replaced by cheers. The sanctity of the somewhat dull folk duo was likewise replaced by a fuller and decidedly heavier sonic atmosphere.

This is when tracks like the popular face-melters Whisper, Harmonizer and Finger prompted revellers to rock their heads back and forth and the mosh came alive. Guitar licks and mechanically-delivered verses with truncated lines met with escalating melodic choruses which followed the guitar melody while the drums shook the chest.

The title track from Segall’s latest album, Hello, Hi delivered an upbeat and lively turn but one of the biggest crowd engagements came from the Hot Chocolate cover, Every 1’s A Winner with a particularly eager crowd member surfing the crowd while completing a dextrous air guitar solo, sparking the rare conversive contribution from Segall – “Play it, man!” – while also sparking security to spring into action.

Of course, many in the crowd were holding out to savour Segall’s most famous and most palatable song, My Lady’s On Fire, provided late in the set, prompting a ruckus sing-a-long.