It’s a pretty disconcerting feeling when you venture to see a band who made it into your Top 10 Albums of 2009 list and end up entering a near-empty venue, but then again, it’s Brisbane and Black Cab aren’t well known up here, despite having long conquered their hometown of Melbourne. So to those who didn’t bother seeing them play: your loss AND you’ve missed out.
/end rant.
Fortunately for the handful of people inside the unusually-cavernous Hi-Fi, locals Dead Shades go about their garage-rock business in much the same manner as they did when I last saw them (at a house party). The band – Brian ‘Braan’ L’Huillier (who also leads garage-blues trio Lovers Of Modern Art) on guitar and vocals, music photographer Dane Beesley on bass and Crystle Fleper aka Fleepwood Mac on drums – pump out one rowdy stomper after another, the tribal drum beats and rough-arse guitar riffs resonating off the venue’s walls. I also finally gather who they remind me of the most – renowned UK auteur Billy Childish and his myriad projects. Props!
Having returned to their hometown after their maiden Japan tour, Grand Atlantic take a likewise no-frills approach by opening with the traditional Coast Is Clear. That typical start aside, the four-piece have a different setlist tonight, airing at least three new songs. Old staples Smoke & Mirrors and Tripwires are jettisoned in favour of the fresh material in the band’s shoegaze/’60s rock vein, however live favourites Used To Be The Sensitive Type, She’s A Dreamer and Just Another Ghost Town retain their one-two punch. Out of the new songs, a wistful ballad in C minor could even be Phil Usher’s finest four minutes. In all, a fine set from the consummate, vintage-digging professionals – even though I would easily opted to close with Ghost Town as opposed to These Are The Times.
By the time Black Cab hit their first-ever Brisbane stage, the crowd has grown to about 200 – which is still small considering The Hi-Fi can easily fit a thousand more – but the excitement is palpable in the air. Once the entrance-music throb of Sonnenallee fades, Melbourne’s finest shoegaze act since The Underground Lovers walk on and unveil the effects-drenched opening strains of Church In Berlin. Singer Andrew Coates does not necessarily strike many poses, yet his voice is booming live than on the band’s records and the combo’s musicianship is as tight as befits a band with many a tour behind them. Tracks from last year’s excellent Call Signs feature the most, with Rescue filling the venue with jet-plane guitar noise and Black Angel turning from a laidback, ’70s-tinged shuffle into a fuzz bass-driven rocker.
As the show keeps rolling, the most atypical and at the same time accessible BC song yet – new single Sexy Polizei – takes off as a bona fide, New Order-esque dance number. Died Pretty’s Ron Peno unfortunately couldn’t make it to Brisbane, but Coates tackles his vocal showcase Ghost Anthems in a similarly sublime manner. The ten metronomic minutes of Krautrock tribute Heart’s On Fire are likewise majestic, reaching boiling-point intensity towards the end. Once the feedback and the applause start simmering down, the six-piece briefly retreat backstage, only to return and deliver the grand finale in the shape of spirited takes on The Velvet Underground’s sleazy transvestite tale Sister Ray and Joy Division’s immortal Transmission. Impossibly cool and thoroughly musical.
