As part of their national tour to launch their first LP entitled RUDE WORLD, the Melbourne based 11 piece musical entity known to all as THE RED EYES graced the shores of Canberra one summer evening such as this…

Having first caught the band a few months back at the same venue (TOAST), news of a full length album was enough to guarantee my place in the small but dedicated crowd that turned up on the night of November 9th.

By the time I had clawed my way loose of the drudgery of a suburban existence and walked up the long flights of stairs into Toast, local reggae/dub/funk outfit Dubba Rukki had already taken to the stage. Having seen them once before it was interesting to see what they decided to bring to the night. Their female vocalist was absent and the music that was emanating from them was a lot more reggae and dub orientated than I thought them capable of. I must admit now quite candidly that this sounded better to my ears than the set that I heard them play last time I saw them. Obviously catering to the type of crowd that Red Eyes gigs are known to draw, Dubba Rukki held their own very well on stage while outside people continued to trickle in, and inside the warm and darkly lit establishment eager punters watered and smoked themselves in preparation for the main event.

And come indeed it did, but not with a loud explosion of sound or a high energy German-style blitzkrieg of the dance floor. Rather when The Red Eyes came on stage quietly and unpretentiously smoothed into their set with a long instrumental dub version of “Prolific” from their EP of the same name, I don’t think everyone in the club even noticed the main act had started. The two brave souls who had ventured out into the dance floor for Dubba Rukki were not suddenly swamped with company; people content to sit back and enjoy the sight of a tight band grooving with such effortlessness that belies their obvious hard work and dedication. When El Witeri, Auckland born front-man for the band, joined them onstage there was no yelling or pandering to the crowd, merely a short thanks for coming out tonight and on to the smooth soulful vocals layed over the multi-headed instrumental monster that is The Red Eyes at full strength.

Twenty minutes later the bass heavy music splashing across the walls of Toast had slowly but surely penetrated the consciousness of everyone in the crowd and the dance floor was littered with bodies undulating with the obvious pleasure that only dub reggae can bring to the face of a listener. The slow burning tactics of The Red Eyes payed off as the night went on and they built layer upon layer of grooves on top of the solid foundation they began with, until their energy level reached its plateau with a live rendition of the heavy ragga-style “Arms Over Jordon” from RUDE WORLD; a pleasure to see El Witeri’s style moving from his smooth delivery to a more hard-edged almost Jamaican toasting style of vocals.

The amusing anecdote for the night occurred during the track “The Word”, a more up-beat funk/jazz infused song, when the keyboard player was lost grooving to a jazz-like solo and El Witeri looked at him then quickly strolled across the stage and physically grabbed his hands to stop them dancing over the keys seriously declaring “this is not jazz! It’s dub reggae!”
Another highlight for this reviewer was the expansive instrumentals that The Red Eyes are known for. At one stage El Witeri retired to the bar while the band sauntered into a long live version of “Thieving Dub” from RUDE WORLD, one of the albums best dark and dubbed out instrumentals full of meandering horns and massive delay effects courtesy of King Charlie on Mix/FX. On top of this A-13 (samples and turntables) wove a sparse tapestry of vocal samples that consisted of the chorus “it causes a revelation, brother, that produces a manifestation!”: an apt description of the effects of the music that was played that night.

During one of these instrumental jams they even rambled into drum and bass territory with a subtle D’n’B beat underlying an amazing percussion solo by Leo Salvo. Mention also has to be made of Dan Marsh on keys and his solo which he performed while dancing in his seat better than most people on the floor.
After what could have been two hours or two days it seemed that The Red Eyes had payed tribute to their musical gods enough for one night and they began to file off stage towards the bar, and it looked for a moment that that was the end, until a chorus of screams from the more drunk members of the crowd triggered the whole crowd into chants calling for an encore. Smiling all round the band returned on stage to perform three more massive tracks to the appreciative bodies on the floor. Needless to say at the end of the show there were people lined up to lay their hands on RUDE WORLD, the amazing debut full length album that was ultimately the reason why we were all congregating together that night.
As per usual to finish off the night A-13 played some very sweet cuts from the DJ booth, and your humble reviewer would have stayed long to enjoy it but, alas, at the risk of sounding passé, my eyes were honestly too red…