The Hu @ The Gov, Adelaide 16/3/2020
Extraordinary times bring extraordinary people. The Mongolian metal band The Hu would’ve preferred to open their debut Australian show in better circumstances than a severely reduced capped audience however times like these call for such measures.
These measures also include has no support act. So how does one band, playing a brand of music unfamiliar to western ears, with no opener tackle this?
As chants of ‘Hu’ resonate around the room, the opening music starts and 8 spectacularly dressed musicians, with equally spectacular instruments, take the stage and start with Shoog Shoog. The rhythmic pounding of the drums and percussion have the roaring room chant back in unison.
The crowd is as diverse as the music, many of the patrons are standard beer drinking metalheads, while others are of the older demographic sipping wine. Both are equally immersed in the spectacle before them.
As the vocalist continues to leads chants of ‘Hu’ to all the corners of the room, the noise back is extremely potent considering the reduced capacity, as they work their way through the songs The Son Of Woman and The Legend Of Mother Swan.
The music itself combines traditional Mongolian elements such as the instruments themselves and chanting with the ability to piece this together with metal music. Yuve Yuve Yu has a riff and groove that is catchy while the venue explodes with noise during Wolf Totem.
Many of the patrons are dressed resembling Genghis Khan but it doesn’t stop them getting up close and indulge in the performance which includes solo’s played on what resembles a cello which could also be a weapon.
The band finish with Black Thunder and This Is The Mongol before a crowd, that generates noise of quite considerably more than 400 people, salute the band.
It what is extraordinary times, an extraordinary band came to Australia and put in an extraordinary performance. Hopefully one day soon they will be back for us all to see.
Live Review By Iain McCallum