11 December 2009, Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Every time I see a show at the Corner, the crowd is completely different. Yeah, obviously, the Hard-Ons are going to attract a different crowd than the Church. But you know, I'm the same at all of them, why don't they all just look like me? Tonight, the crowd looks a lot like Sha Na Na, a fair amount of pompadour hairdos in evidence. Even though tonight is sold out and it should be packed, I'm hoping there won't be as much pushing and shoving as normal.
I guess I'm just a recent convert to Kitty, Daisy and Lewis. I've heard some of their recordings and they seem pretty charming. Reports are that the live shows are fun and good too, so I have pretty good expectations which I can report were fulfilled during the evening.
But Dan Kelly is just coming on as we get there. I looked him up before going, since I had never heard of him. Apparently he had some successful stuff out a few years ago, some a little political (Sleeping on Election Night) and has gotten some awards (or nominated or something). He also seems to be a the nephew of well loved Aussie star Paul Kelly. His band for the evening seems to have been hastily assembled for this supporting spot for the tour. No bass player, a keyboard player who looked like he was a little stoned (or just grumpy), a drummer who apparently used to play for Eskimo Joe (I would probably know more about them if I listened to Triple J more often) and is tapped to play for XX (can't remember the name but it might not have been finalized since he got a little annoyed when Dan mentioned it), and a singing duo the Ukeladies on backing vocals.
So, a few songs I liked, although there was something in the overall sound that didn't sit well with me. I could never quite figure out, did it just sound way too commercial (although it was all a bit rough and the band didn't seem really very tight). The song about bombing power plants and being on the run from the helicopters (complete with helicopter sound effects), although he did screw it up and had to restart the song part way through. Some apparently were his older songs, which I hadn't heard. He did a ukelaile version of Nothing Compares 2U (Sinead O'Conner) which was kind of cute.
The crowd was funny and different tonight. I mean it was sold out and packed but when people tried to crowd up front half way through, they would get scolded, you haven't been standing here for the last hour, have you?
So, if you haven't heard, Kitty, Daisy and Lewis are siblings and were like 12, 14 and 16 (I believe that was like 4 years ago) who play rockabilly on a variety of instruments. They are now joined by their parents, dad on guitar and mom (former drummer for the Raincoats) on stand-up bass. Ok, that last one is almost enough for me. I'm a real sucker for stand-up bass and she was pretty good and could really pull it off. Obviously, the whole family is pretty talented, all the kids switch off pretty effortlessly between guitar, drums, keyboards, trombone, etc.
They really have the fun bits of rockabilly down. It is quite funny to see somebody who started singing about getting her mojo going, learning from a gypsy woman when she was a pre-teen. They really pull it off though. I think the vast majority of what they perform now is versions of old rockabilly songs (like Mean Son Of A Gun by Johnny Horton), all of them probably obscure enough to modern audiences that they are new songs. They have started to write some of their own songs too.
They play for like 90 minutes, switching instruments pretty much every song, switching who is playing drums, playing a keyboard, strapping on an accordion. Part way through, they bring on Eddie 'Tan Tan' Thornton, a legendary Jamaican trumpet player, who has to getting on in his 70s now. He is quite cool. They play a bit of rockabilly ska with him and a few other numbers before he heads off. They play pretty much everything off their one record, and if you have heard it, it is pretty true to that sound, happy up tempo music that makes you want to dance. They impress too which their musical skills, long harmonica feats of endurance. The crowd eats it all up and goes home happy. For me, two great shows in two days (Akron/Family and this one), completely different in every way but both great nights out.
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