Friday, November 13, 2009

tonight in melbourne!

So if you happen to be hanging around Melbourne and you're contemplating just what you're intending to do on this spooky Friday the 13th, contemplate no more! As tempting as it may be to stay in and watch A Night At The Museum, you should come along to the best indie pop show this side of the Slumberland 20th anniversary shows.


Yup, Melbourne's finest, Summer Cats, finally launch their album Songs For Tuesdays locally! In for the party are The Zebras, The Motifs and, with much anticipation, Bart from The Cat's Miaow will be playing solo! Wahoo! Stick around and dance the night away to the best pop jukebox in town, courtesy of the Long Division DJ team (being yours truly and the super-talented Catherine Insch). 

Sure, we'd all love to be at the Black Cat in DC to dance the night away with Pants Yell!, Brown Recluse, The Ropers and more, but the Slumberland celebrations will more than be kicking on in the antipodes!

3 comments:

The Boy and the Cloud said...

wow alex, that must have been great! had you met Bart before?

kidfrostbite said...

so - how was it??

Andy Hazel said...

Sorry, only just saw this. Here's my review of the messy but wonderful concert, should anyone still be interested:

SUMMER CATS, THE ZEBRAS, THE MOTIFS
THE ORDER OF MELBOURNE

The cavernous art deco ceiling of this rarely used venue might be airy but it can’t keep even the most stationary of punters from sweating tonight, while its acoustics make the mixer’s job hard and renders most lyrics and stage banter unintelligible. These problems aside, tonight was a triumphant, if messy, success, with competition from simultaneous gigs not denting the crowd size at all.

The Motifs ply their brand of gentle melody well and the songs are fine (Backwards is still gloriously perfect pop) if tonight’s rendering is marred by anything it’s the distracted audience, poor sound and an increasing reliance on keyboards and handclaps that cut through the mix brightly. When joined by Summer Cat Scott Brewer on miniature Power Tool™ toy guitar for a wonderful Night City the idea of the Motifs thickening their sound becomes appealing, something they’re already pursuing with an increasing use of keyboards and harmonies.

The Zebras are a band that doesn’t need to add anything however, with three guitars, keys and a tight rhythm section their set overcomes the sound problems and manages to stay feather light. From the opening salvo of the arresting I Have Decided via the gently stinging riffs of Science Competition and You Look Ready to the shimmering close of Push Our Way the band are on form and it’s great to hear them back with their 5-piece lineup.

Launching their debut album Songs For Tuesdays, one that’s surely going to feature on some end of year polls next month, Summer Cats support the oft-muttered theory that the bigger the crowd the more shambolic the Summer Cats show. Heat plays havoc with intonation, leads get tangled, fingers nervous, lyrics and banter are almost inaudible but the feedback flows and the guitars sound huge (lead Zebra Jeremy Cole helps out on Rickenbacker). A welcome addition to several songs is the multi-instrumentalism of Nick Hadgelias who backs up blog hit Lonely Planet with accordion and brings tuneful harmonica squawks to Wild Rice. Highlights of the set include the glorious In June, here given teeth by Scott Brewer’s barely contained guitar squalls, Cole’s ringing arpeggios and the barely discernable harmonies of Scott Stevens and Irene Drossinos. It’s a messy, heavenly mix, and one that goes down exceedingly well with the crowd. The band tells me this is crash pop, not twee pop. It sounds like it.