Some 10+ years ago I stumbled onto a copy of a faznine called Year Zero. Now, I know Australia has a great tradition of even greater fanzines, but this one (as well as the Moderate by the same person) has to be THE best one ever published in this country. I kept in touch with its editor Dave Lang for a while, but we lost contact some years ago.
As I said, I finally had a chance to meet him when Bamodi played at the Old Bar. Nowadays he runs a record label, plays in a band and does an awesome blog Lexicon Devil: http://manwithoutshame.blogspot.com/
Dave wrote about Bamodi performance and here it is:
After the '
Boogas there was
Hand Hell, whom I kinda missed altogether, then a Perth band by the name of
Bamodi. It was late and I was about to split until my compadre Richard ('
Boogas bassplayer, by the way) noted to me that an old friend of ours, a "friend" whom neither of us had ever actually met but had been in touch with the both of us on and off for probably nearly 15 years when the printed word was all the go, was a member of the band. His name is Pedrag and it suddenly struck me that he had left a note on this very blog a month back that his band would soon be in town. Well, it'd only be the polite and civilised thing to stick around and at least catch a few songs, especially so since they came all the way from Perth for only a couple of shows. I mean, imagine it's 1980, you're in California and a bunch of barely post-pubescent punkers from DC by the name of the
Teen Idles take the trouble of travelling from one coast to the other for a show or two and you
pass it up! Well, OK, that's a different story, but stick around I did. And I'm glad I did. By the end of the third song I turned to Richard and gave a two-thumbs-up, Fonzie style. He then mimed a bit of keyboard action back to me, smirked and said, "I can see a bit of bloggin' going on over this one".
Damn right! Here I am, hunched over a keyboard on a sunny day telling you about Bamodi! A three piece, they comprise of this: a shite-hot drummer whom I watched in envious awe as his arms spastically moved around the kit at the speed of light, his style hovering somewhere 'round a
Joy Division/Rey Washam nexus; a tall, looming bassist - that's Pedrag - farting out basslines in a nonchalant manner not unlike
Venom P. Stinger's Al Whateverhisnameis; and a singer/guitarist, small in stature but with a yelping, screaming voice that sounds alternately like a screaming child, a cat in pain and
Rudimentary Peni's Nick Blinko. In fact, after the show I talked to Pedrag and let him know that the band reminded me of none other than
Rudimentary Peni - frighteningly so, in fact - and that they
must be influenced by them. He gave me a quizical look and just said something like, "They were linked up w/
CRASS, weren't they?". Whatever.
Bamodi were a shock to the system, a goddamn musical force and an excellent way to finish the night. There ain't nothing on this earth like witnessing a band you have zero expectations for and promptly having any preconceptions of blasé been-there/done-that/seen-it-all-before BS thrown out the door as they blaze through a short, sharp set w/ nary a break in between. By show's end, I was
gushing. As I am now. I was given a free CD for my troubles, some of which you can hear on that link above, and whilst it doesn't contain the absolute drive and nerve-shattering wall of sound of the live experience, it's something I'll be hanging onto.
Nice bloody work, is all I can say...