Andrew Morris, JackieMarshall, Leena @ The Zoo,Brisbane, 18/08/2007

Wed 22nd Aug, 2007 in Gig Reviews

The Zoo was fairly light on Saturday night when Andrew Morris launched his new album Union Bars. This, however, was not a reflection of Morris’s popularity just the fact that the sold out Ryan Adams gig at the Tivoli that night divided the Brisbane folk/rock/alt-country crowd. Nonetheless, the Zoo filled to about half capacity to welcome the highly anticipated third album from Morris.

Freo’s singer/songwriter Leena began the evening with her warm mellow folk/pop brand of music. Simply dressed in a black strapless dress and white scarf the diminutive singer performed solo accompanying herself on acoustic guitar. Opening with a Bruce Springsteen tune, Atlantic City, Leena’s interpretation of this classic track was nothing short of sensational. Despite her obvious musical gift Leena seemed to lack confidence in her abilities pulling faces or giggling when she made a mistake no matter how minor. Perhaps it is this, her unassuming nature, and naive performance style that is so heart warming and engaging. Highlights of her set were the hauntingly beautiful Hummingbird, the infectious Love’s Unkind and Sabotage which will be released as her first single in October. Leena also introduced the crowd to a few new tracks, Silver City and Romeo, both proving her growth as a songwriter with the latter being a standout. A notable exclusion on the evening was her fiery tune Liar which is arguably one of her best tracks. Leena is an absolute joy to watch and definitely one to keep an eye on.

When Jackie Marshall and her band took to the stage her high energy immediately infected the room. Kicking off with a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Want to Have Fun Marshall set the scene for a fun and spirited set. Marshall exudes joy and her love of performing is obvious as she embraces her music unreservedly. Much to the chagrin of her fans The Freeloader Regrets was the only track that she performed from her album Fight ‘n’ Flight . Her set included a few of her own songs including Ugly Man but it was songs written by Paul Brosgarth that were a cut above the rest. A new track Marshall wrote about a brothel worker titled, Lady of the House, bordered on R.S.L. band tragic and a counter meal number being called out over the loudspeaker would not have been out of place. Nonetheless Marshall’s acrobatic vocal style and upbeat delivery was captivating and pumped up the crowd for Andrew Morris’s set.

After what seemed like an excruciatingly long break between sets Morris finally took to the stage with his new band which included; Scotty Regan (drums); Dan Parsons (guitar) and Murray McDonald (bass guitar). Morris wore a t-shirt, braces and tight, tight jeans which almost begged for a sock to be stuffed down the front ala Bon Scott. Opening with his new single Here You Are, There You Go there was no doubting that Morris has been blessed with the talent and skill to continually pump out great new tunes without becoming stale and redundant. New tracks like Spinning (Around & Around) and the catchy Here He Comes both possessed a Bob Dylan quality in there vocal delivery and received a warm reception from the crowd. For the first half of the set the crowd were contented to stand back, relax and drink in the performance. Morris however was not content and invited the crowd to come closer because, he said, “I like to look at ya”. Little encouragement was needed and punters rushed the stage and broke into dance when Morris kicked it up a notch with his country inspired track Shine On. Unfortunately his older songs like the hugely popular Let It Roll and Heart Bounded By Sorrow came off as loose and demonstrated the bands lack of rehearsal of these tracks.

Banter was thick and fast on stage particularly between Morris and drummer Regan (*The Gin Club*). Both complemented each others hair and made quips about everything from football to beer. Regan however trod a very fine line taking jokes about drugs a little too far by mocking ice addicts and leading the crowd to draw obvious conclusions. Morris quickly pulled him back in line and Regan back tracked at great speed praising Grinspoon’s Phil Jamieson’s courage and openness in speaking out about his ice addiction. This faux pax however was not the only one of Regan’s night. After Morris requested that the crowd help out Regan with a bit of clapping for the song Everybody Knows, and the drummer demonstrated the rhythm, he told Morris that he was “not going to act like a Mongoloid on stage again”. One can only assume that this derogatory remark was born out of ignorance and not any real malice. Nonetheless it would seem to be a wise decision for Regan to consider the implications of what he says on stage before he actually says it.

Morris finished his set with the rock based track L.A. then quickly re-emerged on stage sparing the crowd from a drawn out plea for an encore. He concluded the night with the appropriately titled The Bitter End and Paul Kelly’s Look So Fine, Feel So Low which was easily the best song of the night. It is clear Morris is very proud of his new album and rightly so, it delivers an injection of rock into Morris’s alt-country sound which is fresh and inspired. Judging by the crowd’s enthusiastic reception of tracks from Union Bars , it is clear that Morris’s gamble on enlisting indie producer J. Walker has well and truly paid off.

Union Bars is out now through ABC Music/Warner Music