Mercy Arms, Ghostwood, TheWednesday Society @ RocketRoom, Perth (30/8/2007)

Fri 31st Aug, 2007 in Gig Reviews

Some of the best gigs are played to just a handful of people. Of course, the first one that comes to mind is that Sex Pistols gig in Manchester at the beginning of the film 24 Hour Party People. But while some poorly-attended shows are great despite the small crowds, every now and then you’ll witness one that’s great because of them, our Sex Pistols show being the primary example. And the same was true of Mercy Arms as they played their first headline show in WA, at the Rocket Room in Northbridge.

Playing almost exclusively to bar staff, music writers and the other bands on the bill, The Wednesday Society faced an uphill struggle from the start but, as we’ve come to expect from Brendan Jay and his pals, there are no excuses for a half-arsed performance. And while a couple of awkward silences resulted in one of the least cohesive they’ve done for a while, the band made the most of the near-empty room and played an uncharacteristically off-beam set, with bassist Jamie Sher leaving the crowded stage to play much of the set from the dancefloor.

Sydney band Ghostwood, national support for the tour, played to a slightly larger crowd but failed to lift like the Wednesday boys. While vocalist Gabriel Navidzadeh sounds casual yet ever-so-slightly strained on record, his talents weren’t nearly as evident on stage, sounding relatively nasal and contrived when compared to his efforts on the band’s self-titled EP. Alongside Navidzadeh, Paddy Harrowsmith (guitar), Tom Crandles (bass) and James West (drums) may as well have been The Cure circa 1979. While Ghostwood have potential pouring from every possible body cavity, their 40-odd minutes demonstrated little more than the fact they can play their instruments pretty well and they really like listening to Three Imaginary Boys. Case in point: set closer Run, over which you can just about sing F-I-R-E-I-N-C-A-I-R-O without the slightest adjustment.

But with Mercy Arms, any shades of mediocrity drifted away with the first wave of reverb from gangly guitarist Kirin Callinan. Granted, Mercy Arms’ influences are also recognisable from the outset but whatever they’ve cooked up with those ingredients is truly their own. With the crowd peaking at the beginning of the headline act’s set, the 50-odd people who had bothered to turn up on an icy Thursday night didn’t need much in the way of convincing. As though the band had a point to prove, they offered an almost note-perfect performance with a sound as well-rounded and complete as anyone in Australia right now. At the centre of this stood the singer/guitarist complement; Callinan providing all kinds of entertainment, balancing the reclusive manner of frontman Thom Moore (any relation to Thurston?) like some kind of inside-out Morrissey-Marr relationship.

The main constraint Mercy Arms had to deal with was always going to be their limited catalogue; there’s a demo, a single and an EP, which isn’t much for a band headlining a national tour. And clocking in just over 40 minutes, the set seemed to finish as suddenly as it had burst into life. But rather than scattering signs of promise throughout a set full of gaps, Mercy Arms gave the impression of a band throwing only their very best at the crowd. As the band played the contents of new EP Kept Low as well as live favourites Kilby and Half Right, the crowd stood wide-eyed, dragged backwards through a fog of thick, reverby guitar noise that sounds like late-1980s Sonic Youth reconstructing the upward rush of Loveless in their own language. Bounding around the tiny stage with the kind of presence you don’t see too often, Callinan never took the time to take a breather, nailing every part as he manhandled his guitar and microphone stand. If his tremolo or digital delay hadn’t been so precise, it’d be easy to have dismissed the guitarist’s display off as showboating – but with such an overwhelming coming from the house PA, Callinan – and any of his bandmates, for that matter – could have done whatever they wanted.