The debut EP for Melbourne pop rock outfit Mistress Mondays was released Friday, and what better way to celebrate than to have a party in their honour at Melbourne’s newly reopened rock and roll bar, Ding Dong?
First up for the night was the garage rock quartet, The Corsairs, and everything from their presentation, to their sound, screamed ‘Melbourne rock’.
Four guys, wearing clothes that were probably picked up from a messy bedroom floor and thrown on without any more thought, playing music with a sound that Melbourne seems to have perfected – hard rock that still verges on a fun, pop sound.
Playing to their natural abilities and knowledge, their music consequently flowed out with sheer talent and ease. The absolute best moment of the entire evening was the bone-chilling bass solo given by Adam Morgan towards the end of their set – its only shame was that so few people were there to witness it, the curse of being billed first (so be sure to check out their own EP launch at Ding Dong on Sep 15th).
By the time the Lost Weekends had stepped on stage thirty minutes later, more people had arrived and several of those who had assembled seemed to be there for the band.
It was a slow warm up with many punters seemingly confused by the Lost Weekends’ combination of indie-dance-rock sounds and stood back to take whatever the hell was happening in.
However, it wasn’t long before the eclectic music, coupled with an enthusiastic Glaswegian frontman, had successfully created a dance floor that resembled a nightclub – who genuinely looked like they were having an absolute blast.
Finally, the band of the night, Mistress Mondays, stepped on stage uniformed in crisp white shirts and wasted little time into jumping into their first song.
After a unique marketing campaign of hand delivering tickets and posting photos of the happy customers with their tickets and EP on their Facebook page, there seemed to be a lot of generated curiosity in what the band was going to deliver. And what they delivered was something unique and interesting.
The guys played well, delivering a mix of their latest songs with newly revamped older material and two covers, Band of Skulls ‘Death By Diamonds and Pearls’, and Cold War Kids ‘Hang Me Out To Dry’.
As the set progressed however, it was hard to tell if the crowd had simply moved around the room, or had gradually started leaving.
There was certainly wavering levels of interest, at some points there seemed to be a lot of excitement and dancing, whereas others, the mood seemed to die down to a subdued hush.
Whatever the reaction, the two guitarists carried the band in both sound and passion. Joel Loukes on bass plays with finesse and natural skill, and whose sound is played in perfect harmony with James Mackay on lead guitar. A brutal player – Mackay is unafraid to pump out complex and spectacularly unique solos, a truly special feature that the band would do better to capture and unleash more often than they do.
The set on a whole was well executed and left a taste in the mouth that there is more to come from this distinctively individual band.
– Tara Emily
