What better way to spend National SLAM (Save Live Australian Music) Day than to head off to a venue and see live music? What was particularly enjoyable was seeing two bands who both are a lot of fun to watch and show a great deal of promise for the future.
Glenn Mossop from Bonjah was the first act tonight. One man and an acoustic guitar; but this wasn’t a case of the musical genre that’s been beaten to death over the past few years (the sensitive New Age male with a guitar thing). Mossop was definitely leaning more towards the blues, with that highly effective voice of his.
Almost a confessional whisper, Mossop’s voice is undercut with this beautifully gravelly, too much whiskey and cigarettes tone to it, like some of the great vocalists such as Mark Lanegan and Tom Waits. This was a very chilled and relaxed way to warm up the gathering crowd. Mossop is a highly talented guitarist and singer; it was great to watch him do his thing in the intimate surrounds of the Revolver band room.
With a highly charming and idiosyncratic take on the more funky elements of rock, such as those exhibited by Led Zeppelin in their heyday, Mistress Mondays pulled the biggest crowd of the night. With a set list that featured great tracks like “Sounds Of Me Surrendering”, “Thorn” and “Bad Man”, after sorting out some sound issues during the first song, the band, led by charismatic lead singer Michael Staples, were a highly entertaining unit. There was a sensational connection and lock between the drum and bass, creating a musical foundation so solid you could build a house on it. They even threw in an excellent take on the Cold War Kids track, “Hang Me Out To Dry” in their set. Mistress Mondays are an excellent indication of the quality of local live music out there.
Sheer chaos was the order of the night with the final act, Sheriff [pictured]. Exhibiting the ‘bad boy blues’ of early AC/DC and giving it the musical equivalent of a good kick in the gonads while wearing steel capped boots, Sheriff revelled in their musically tight but wildly unpredictable and at times loose and shambolic approach to playing live. This is not meant as a bad thing, Sheriff were actually quite refreshing in their ‘take us as we are, and if you don’t like us, whatever’ style and approach.
Tracks like “On The Floor”, “Gig From Hell” and the electrifying “Zombie” could have torn paint off the band room and at least one layer off your eardrums. The band is definitely a ‘love it or hate it’ proposition. Whatever Sheriff did tonight had that raw and spontaneous feel to it. It’s refreshing to see a band that don’t feel the need to not think about what they do too much and go with what they feel live, damn the consequences.
This was an excellent night with a line-up that fit really well together in how they all illustrated different senses of musical character and style, while in one way or another coming from the same musical field. Tonight was a really fun night that reminded one of the importance of the live music scene in this city.
– Neil Evans
