Mesa Cosa.
Tickets on the door - $10.
Not many bands can say they’ve played with Mac Demarco, The Melvins and The Mummies, or that they’ve been invited to play Camp A Low Hum, Chopped Festival or New Years Eve on The Hill twice, but then again, not many bands are Mesa Cosa.
For a renegade gang of five; sometimes six, sometimes seven, Mesa Cosa already have a swathe of accolades up their sleeve, however this new signing to 123 Agency is sure to see them delivering some of their biggest shows yet, including one at this year’s New Years Eve On The Hill.
It’s not just their unorthodox musical chops that set them apart, the band, of guitarists, Pablo Alvarado, Chris Penny and Ian Sawyer, bassist Andrew Marty, and drummer, Steven Kelly have quickly become known as Melbourne’s busiest “Freakout Fuzz Ya Ya Gang” (a term the band may have coined themselves). Born of a chance tarot reading, they also draw influence from life’s darker side; occult celebrations and Mexican death rituals. They stay true to their “do-it-together” aesthetic, they're consistently looking for their next Scooby Doo adventure.
Front-man, Pablo Alvarado, who hails from Mexico City, which is an undeniable influence on the band, switches between singing in his mother tongue and English, while the band draws on a range of genres from garage-punk and mexican folk to comic book metal.
If you’ve already witnessed their live show, then you’d know it is here where they really come into themselves. “We've always had a philosophy of getting lost in the moment with the audience,” explains Alvarado. They brandish a devil-may-care magnetism, while lacerating their audiences with boisterous choruses, jagged hooks and upholding their well-known reputation to cause mayhem. (The first time we saw Mesa Cosa, Chris was crowd surfing with a 4ft marijuana plant, roots and all, in his hands... – ed.).
While, when they're not working on their own music, they’re also the brains behind touring agency, Bone Soup, who've unloaded a plethora of international artists on Australian audiences in recent years, from King Khan & The BBQ Show to Screaming Females and Guantanamo Baywatch, plus a whole lot more.
Having just returned from the studio with Nao Anzai, today, Mesa Cosa deliver a punk-rock juggernaut in the form of “Stone Bone”. Mixed by Stu Mackenzie (King Gizzard), "Stone Bone" oozes with flying saucer fuzz guitar, a pummelling rhythm section and snarling vocals, it's a track about "when things go so wrong you just have to accept them and go with it, you're 'Stone Boned'; it's like when you’re so late for work that you just accept it and take even longer cause you're boned anyway. We're screwed, let's celebrate!" says Alvarado.
Inspired by The Wicker Man and David Lyle's 'This Ends Here' painting, the visual accompaniment to ‘Stone Bone’ is “a literal representation of what we do to music.. Destroy it, then burn it”. The clip signifies a fresh new chapter for the band, seen dancing, as if around the Maypole, celebrating the change of seasons, while burning all of their broken instruments which they’ve amassed over the years.
“Stone Bone” is the first video clip, of many, to come from Mesa Cosa ahead of their sophomore LP, slated for release in early 2017. The band will continue their unrelenting touring with an East Coast tour this October and November, including performances at The Great Northern’s infamous Halloween Bash, River Fest in Moruya and topped off with New Years Eve On The Hill
#thecambo #thecambridge
