Now I know the World Cup was on and all, but with such an amazing
lineup, I’m quite surprised the Home Nightclub was without an endless queue! Indeed, the place wasn’t packed, but the night was certainly packed in
with an eclectic mix of artists from around Australia – and even the world!
Taking the reins on proceedings on the “Sydney Meets Sydney”
curated main stage was none other than The Tea Party’s Jeff Martin, providing entertaining banter between sets. First cab
off the ranks was Fergus Brown, the man with the burger. He really needs
a new promotional photo, while I think of it… Mr. Brown and company are quite
the eclectic group. Indeed, they use a squishy burger toy as an instrument, but
it’s more than that. While tracks are weighted towards the upbeat spectrum,
there’s plenty of downtime too, with a few soft numbers balancing out the
performance.
Track “Nerds in Love”, which featured Holly Austin on the
hamburger, was pretty rad. She also looped some awesome vocal effects during
“One Stubborn Sound” – tongue clicks, kazoo sounds and the like. It
was a great set, but through reviews such as this, it’s easy to make it out
like the quirky elements of the set are all Fergus Brown has going for him. But
it’s comparable to Philadelphia Grand Jury’s pre-recorded banter. When the
music is already fantastic, there’s nothing wrong with giving you a little
something extra to make it a memorable set. Even Jeff Martin had a giggle when
he announced the album title, Burgers Frown. “Hot Kisses, Cold
Tiles” brought the entertaining (and indeed memorable) set to an end.
Next, I caught Lupin in the Icon room (which is where Rebel Rebel normally takes place). AKA Victoria Girling
Butcher, Lupin is perhaps best known for her decade long work with New Zealand’s
Lucid 3, and she’s now headed out into the world as a solo artist. Accompanied
tonight by Lindon Puffin, Lupin showed herself to be a beautiful singer,
songwriter and guitarist. I read somewhere that when James Blunt saw her
perform as his support, he doubled her fee! Very nice. And I can see why!
Making my way to the Mezzanine Lounge, I caught Dappled Cities in super
intimate mode – there couldn’t have been more than 50 people in that room! But
they nonetheless played as though there were hundreds in there – sans lasers, of course.
Favourites such as “The Night Is Young At Heart” were included in the set, and
were as fun as always, but Dappled also highlighted a few new tracks off
a forthcoming LP. I have to say these tracks impressed, and I’m looking forward
to hearing them more often! Always a pleasure boys, always a pleasure.
Meanwhile, back in the Icon room, Natasha
Duarte had the whole hot-punk-rock-chick-lead-singer-in-a-band-of-dudes-who-don’t-do-much-to-distract-you-from-hot-lead-singer
thing going on. You know, like Paramore. The songs weren’t too dissimilar from
the aforementioned band, and while it’s not my sort of thing, there’s something
always entertaining about it live. Or maybe it’s just because she’s go the whole hot-punk-rock-chick-lead-singer-in-a-band-of-dudes-who-don’t-do-much-to-distract-you-from-hot-lead-singer
thing going on. Don’t steal her boyfriend.
One band I was really looking forward to was Canada’s Two Hours
Traffic, who Dead Letter Chorus have brought on tour, following a
successful stint together in their native state. The band are quite unique –
live they have a bit of a Kinks meets Weezer thing going on, with a bit of a
country vibe happily thrown in at times. They certainly know how to keep things interesting!
I’m looking forward to hearing plenty more from these guys – they’ve got a lot
going for them.
New Zealand’s The Earlybirds,meanwhile, had taken over the Mezzanine Lounge. Catching their track “Kill the DJ” it would be hard to argue that they’re
on the original side of town – but it’s not quite what you’d call generic, and
somehow it works. Quite nicely actually. But having really only heard the one
track, I couldn’t comment on the band beyond this! Back at Icon, Phatchance
was playing to a packed out room. He was pretty standard of the Australian Hip
Hop scene these days, which I’m not the biggest fan of, but it was far more
palatable that what I’m used to, and certainly had enough of a unique feel to
it to keep me entertained for the two tracks I caught.
Earlier I mentioned the main stage was curated by “Sydney Meets Sydney”. You
may have been wondering what that was all about. Well, it was about getting
songwriters from Sydney, Nova Scotia (Canada) and Sydney, Australia, together
to record music. That’s how Two Hours Traffic and Dead Letter Chorus got
together, and why Jeff Martin was hosting that portion of the evening. So it should come as no surprise that the
fantastic Dead Letter Chorus closed the Sydney Meets Sydney section out, and
that the set ended with Two Hour Traffic joining them on stage for the song
they wrote together while in Sydney (Canada) – “Last Night In Your Town”. An
easy highlight of the set. What a beautiful track!
But they truly entranced me from the first note of the first song, “I’m Already
Dead”. Meanwhile, they were doing the whole Arcade Fire ‘let’s switch instruments between
members every song’ thing – Gabrielle Huber on keys and backing vocals at first, then
later lead vocals and guitar, as just one example! Their fantastic single “Covered
By Snow” was another highlight of the night, but this is truly a band worth
seeing. Terribly underrated, terrifically impressive, Dead Letter Chorus are
already one of Australia’s finest bands.
New Zealand’s Computers Want Me Dead were playing at the same time in the
Lounge, and ended their set with the popular single “We Walk in Circles”. I
love the track on record, but this doesn’t quite translate live. In fact, most
of the set I witnessed came across as underwhelming. Perhaps they were working
with some poor sound, but it pretty much sounded like they were doing poor karaoke
versions of their tracks. Which, while still entertaining, was underwhelming.
One entertained guest, however, yelled out “YOU’RE THE BEST BAND FROM NEW ZEALAND
EVER!” at the end of their set, so I guess they do have their fans!
Next, Lindon Puffin returned to the stage in the Icon room, this time with Lupin
as his supporting vocalist and percussionist. Much like Lupin, Lindon showed
himself to be a talented singer/guitarist/harmonic…ist, delivering an
entertaining and heartfelt set. Finally moving back to the main stage, Megan Washington closed out the night, opening with the wonderful “How to Tame a Lion”, and moving through a half hour set which included her most
recent hit single “Rich Kids” and another popular track in “Swallows”.
Always a
talent on the stage, tonight Megan performed as a two piece and was no
exception. An excellent end to a wonderful night of music, that successfully showed
Sydney off as haven for talent, and most importantly – entertained yours truly.
Now, back to the soccer.
Header Photo by Robert Jansen – click HERE for the full gallery!
