After the much publicised deterioration of San Fransisco’s Brian Jonestown Massacre (BJM), you would think Anton Newcombe would have stayed well away from a notoriously unforgiving music world. I first came across Anton in the fantastic documentary film, Dig!, which follows the tragic love-hate relationship of bands The Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre over seven years from their beginnings. Anton had gotten a mighty reputation as someone who lived a deluded life of far too many drugs, being an unpredictable band leader and seeming to sabotage each opportunity he was given. Through all the highs and lows of his music career he has left a legendary legacy behind which has spawned hundreds of brilliant bands because of his cult psych-rock sound. As Joel Gion of BJM mentioned in Dig!, "You can't forget that Anton has been able to do the only thing he ever said he wanted to do – make a lot of great music". Since 2007, Anton has been residing in Berlin living an excess free life with his family, and has also been running A Recordings Ltd.
 
Tess Parks, the Toronto-born London-based songstress who has being playing music live since she was 17 years old, reached out to Anton when she was visiting Berlin and ended up making a couple of singles with him. You could say it was a match made in heaven, as the mix of her tobacco stained vocals and Anton’s creative spark could not be better suited. Having released their debut album together, I Declare Nothing, in April 2015 a near capacity Haunt was full of anticipation to see what this collaboration would bring to the live stage.
 
There was definitely a contingent of the audience who had come to the gig on the reputation of the film and were hoping for some catastrophic fight on stage, but those days are long gone and Anton gave a bemused smirk to any audience members trying to get a reaction from the once volatile frontman. Instead the band of six took the limelight with their immersive sound, Tess’s husky vocals and Anton’s intricate guitar taking the crowd through a voyage of hazy psychedelic layers. Each song would start in dim lights, build up from the relatively minimal sound to rich textured jams, with the songs intensity being matched by an impending red glow from the venues lights.
 
There is definitely a formula to the sound that Anton has created, which has brought him great success and a strong fan base, but the ceaseless rhythms could be seen as a little one dimensional. Most songs stuck to three chords and Anton’s guitar playing sometime only consisted of a few notes. That said, it worked to great effect and had the majority of the crowd lost in its compelling vibe but it was still too easy to lose track of which song was what.
 
There is a lot to like about Tess Parks, and there is no doubt that there is an abundance of musical ability, but at times it still felt like “The Tess Parks & Anton Newcombe Show” as directed by Anton Newcombe. Periodically he would speak to the members of the band dictating how to do something, and the overall sound isn’t too dissimilar to BJM’s music. However, even though it falls into the “nothing new” category, it all sounded great live which was obvious from the crowd’s reaction – and there is no faulting that.
Iain Lauder