The Northcote Social Club, only a 10 minute bike ride (up a huge hill though), so cool to be close to things. After a nice pizza and calzone dinner, the Twerps have just started playing when we get there. Ahh, I really like them. I hadn't heard them before but it is a nice surprise. It is obvious they have been listening to a lot of Go-Betweens records and at times I get a bit of a Feelies-Crazy Rhythms feeling.
The drummer is quite laid back. At one point, he almost worked up a sweat. The music has a nice quiet slow jangleness. They are quite young. The guitar/singer plays simple things and occasionally stomps on the distortion for almost ridiculous noisy guitar breaks (ala Dinosaur Jr) which make me laugh every time. The girl lead guitar plays a nice texture of notes underneath (almost a surf guitar sound) also giving it a slight pleasing discordance. It really does have that Go-Betweens two guitar interplay sound. At one point somebody in the audience yells to turn her up. Half way through the next song, she keeps gesturing to the soundman to turn it back down. It really does fit in better with the sound when it is a nice texture just under the music. But I thought they were great, I'll go see them again if they are around. Apparently they have only been around for about a year.
Next up, the Crayon Fields. I've heard them mentioned around but hadn't heard them before either. I have to say, they had some magnificent sweaters (jumpers). It must have been a band requirement because they all had total 80s sweaters on. They have quite a full sound. Like the Twerps, they are also slower but there is a lot more going on. The 2nd guitar player plays a whole lot more notes and sometimes fills with a keyboard. There is a lot of different percussion, shaking different things at points. It gives them a highly produced sound, sort of Belle and Sebastian like. The singing is funny, I don't think he was Japanese but it has that slightly stilted sound of English being a second language. None of their songs seem to go on for more than about 2 1/2 minutes. I enjoyed them, although I like the Twerps more, since they were a lot more fun.
They pull the curtain across the stage and the place really fills up. It was a sold out show and it was packed wall to wall. That's probably why 2/3rd through their set, I feel quite faint from the heat and have to go find somewhere to sit down for a while. Now Flying Nun when I was just getting into music years ago, it was sort of the holy grail for me, legendary, hard to find, and so exciting when I finally got to hear some. Before the days of the internet, the only way to hear any of it was to break down and pay like $20 for a crazy expensive import single. So, I had some Tall Dwarfs, Clean, etc, but I didn't have any Bats. How exciting though, my first Flying Nun band to see live.
The BatsI guess of all the Flying Nun bands I've heard, to my ears, they seem to be the most Australian sounding of them. I mean they don't have quite that frenetic jangling, but sound more solidly folk, with that Australian ballad, sort of Triffids sort of thing going on. In a sort of theme of the evening, they also have a girl lead guitar who plays lots of notes and textures under the main sound and sings on some songs, giving them nice harmonies. They haven't toured for years and the audience eats them up. The band seems slightly blown away by it, promising to come back soon, not quite expecting the turnout they got tonight. They play a pretty good set, only really marred by me nearly passing out towards the end. Although of all of them, I actually kind of liked the Twerps most of all from the evening. Ahh, Melbourne does have some pretty good music about.
Crayon Fields
The TwerpsTHE BATS (NZ) with The Crayon Fields and The Twerps SOLD OUT! ** The Twerps 9pm * The Crayon Fields 10:10pm * The Bats 11:20pm to 12:20am ** Mistletone presents The Bats in their first Australian shows in ages! The legendary New Zealand band have been playing their distinctive style of melodic infused pop folk/rock for long enough to have drifted in and out of fashion several times, without even trying. The Bats top many a music aficionado’s list as well as sparking for today’s savvy young music initiates. The Bats are set to release their wonderful new album ‘The Guilty Office’ as they head to our shores for the first time in six years with the same brilliant line-up since the band’s conception in 1983: Robert Scott, Kaye Woodward, Paul Kean and Malcolm Grant.
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