Time for a music catch up..
The other week I caught the end of Wallspace at Spectrum and they’re still not doing anything for me. The reason for being there though was to catch Phonograph again. The crowd was big for a Thursday night mid-bill band and although they had everyone’s attention the set seemed particularly long, throwing three new slower songs in a row lost a few people, and overall they didn’t quite spark as much as they can. I skipped out on the headliners to get an early night.
Last week I found myself having a magical experience at the Excelsior in Surry Hills, so much so I’m going to struggle to explain it. I’ve been wanting to check out Darren Percival for a year or so since I read about a CD of his and saw that he was singing around town but usually in venues I don’t particularly want to go to on my own. The other night, the venue being close to home, I decided to go along to see Darren Percival’s Voiceterous – a solo performance, no instruments, just three microphones and a little machine in to which he was storing live loops, playing them back, singing over them and harmonising with himself. Watching this little genius show had me awestruck. His voice, despite being troubled by the lurgy going around, managed to be as strong and stunning as I remember [insert long story about being stunned by him on a few occasions circa ’89 or ’90 due to being in the same class as his kid brother]. The venue itself was decked out with tables and chairs for a change and from the onset Darren got people singing along with a song I can only assume called “We live on an island”. He beeped and honked in to his microphones and looped the sounds for the chorus of a song about traffic jams – when you shut your eyes you’d be forgiven for thinking you really were sitting in a car trying to get up William Street at rush hour. He joked around, encouraged the crowd to sing, and made this girl smile with little tears in my eyes for the beauty of it.
Saturday night I went to @newtown for an fbi fundraiser. Walrus kicked off the night as a three piece in white shirts and black ties, at times sounding Hives-esque, generally sounding ok. Lyceum were a bit different to the other time I saw them (I thought they had atleast another member) and they didn’t really grab me. I didn’t catch much of the The Model School so it’s hard to say much about them this time. And last up was Phonograph (anyone get the feeling I see this band a bit too often??)… the set started a little casually but soon they had a few people dancing who turned in to even more people and with some encouragement from the band those people went and grabbed others on to the floor. The set picked up pace and the new songs seemed sped up so they came across better this time. Their stage presence, considering the large space they had to move in, was fantastic and they definitely need to get themselves on some more big stages. It was impressive to see a previously seated and tired looking crowd get up and enjoy the songs but that’s the power of Phonograph – their tunes make you want to get up and let go.