Despite the rest of the city being gripped by British & Irish Lions fever, there was a fine reason to skip the game and head to The Workers Club. With Gomez member Ben Ottewell in town, there was something else to look forward to.
An unusual ease characterised the evening’s beginning. As fans filed dutifully into the band room, the only thing to be heard was people quietly chatting over a silent PA.
The poor fill-in lad behind the mixing desk was run off his unprepared feet. Poorer still was the reported state of the absent knob-tweaker. Legend has it between the gig and the soundcheck, he’d gone home, scaled his fence for reasons unexplained, fallen and busted a bone or two.
Nonetheless, the situation allowed the gathered to rediscover the art of conversation, chatting amiably until Matt Walker took the stage.
Walker is a genuine talent. Having played in and around Australia (and abroad) for nearly 20 years, his alt-country tinged tunes have a strong grounding thanks to collaborative work with Ashley Davies and filling out touring bands for Mick Harvey, Judah Bauer and others.
Backed ably by Shane Reilly, who swapped lap steel for mandolin and back again throughout, the well-honed tones rang out smoothly around the room.
With a fevered wig-out here and there to split the ever-so-Southern-States-leaning vocals, the interplay between Walker and Reilly was measured and accomplished.
At times Walker would stand aside and cast a gaze over Reilly’s work, the duo ambling seamlessly through tracks predominantly drawn the recent In Echoes Of Dawn. A fine and worthy opening.
With the trials of the underprepared stand-in sound tech looming over the evening, in a lovely act of normality, the evening’s big name leant a hand at the desk by tuning the dials to suit before wading back through the crowd.
Ottewell sat himself cheerily on a bar stool, held his head just above that of the crowd and lashed into a rasping version of Nick Drake’s “Black Eyed Dog”. Rattling, rough-cut chords from a (slightly out of tune) 12-string were the only cover for his soaring, hard-worn vocal calls.
Ottewell’s tones were sharp and measured, the singer grinning between songs and treating the packed band room to a slight reworking of the old Gomez gem “Get Miles” from their gorgeous 1998 debut album Bring It On.
While the weary Gomez are on a little break from holding up bars around the world, Ottewell now has the chance to add a few extra growls to his gruff but affable output. Without the need to step aside for Ian Ball and Tom Gray to share the lead duties, the Workers Club was lucky to see the singer perform in this uninterrupted manner.
Calmly moving through a well-paced setlist, the Gomez favourites were pushed slightly into the background when Ottewell moved into a solo number – “Blackbird” from his 2011 effort Shapes & Shadows. Picking through chords, now with a battered six-string on his lap, there was a tender urgency to each flighty riff.
Scattering an intimate set with a few charming covers is never a bad thing and Ottewell has this technique this down pat. After his earlier Nick Drake, he provided a lilting version of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine”, doing it every justice and more.
A grin was etched on every face in the room as a Bo Diddly beat emerged for “78 Stone Wobble”, only for a whispering version of “Tijuana Lady” to immediately shut everyone up.
At that point Ottewell looked up and thanked the besieged replacement sound tech for his efforts, sending his wishes to the broken man at home. The singer then stood up and headed off stage, before sheepishly returning seconds later.
“Wasn’t that poor…? I mean, I just I just went in there… [behind the curtained corner that masquerades as a dressing room]. Anyway, I’ll play another one,” he chuckled.
In keeping with the evening’s routine, it was another cover, and a great one – Steve Earle’s “Lungs”. The haunting lyric met its match in Ottewell’s darkened drawl – as did we all.
It was a different kind of Lion’s roar, and a gig to take your grin to slack-jawed and back.
