Skipping Girl Vinegar @Hopetoun (03/10/07)

Thu 11th Oct, 2007 in Gig Reviews

It’s hot and still. Wednesday night and people begin to trickle into the Hopetoun hotel. A crowd builds but is strangely silent; the squeaky fans rotate and give the room an eerie pulse.

Local girl T-Bone (of The Black Astronaut Appreciation Society) opens the evening with a gut full of soul and a voice to match. The perfect thing for this sultry evening.

I would have loved to see T-bone either more rehearsed or at least at ease with straining vocals which could have been an emotional impact in her music if she had been more comfortable with the breaking points. It would have made her songs all the more captivating. Ending the set on Vikings, meandering repetitive lyrics of “girls who look like boys and boys who dress like girls” thump along to the slow pulse of the room.

Skipping Girl Vinegar is a joyful four-piece act from Melbourne. Tonight they are launching their single One Chance. During the set they tell us they are named after a Melbourne icon and that they are starting a postal revolution. (No, they are not going postal… rather sending letters instead of emails… you know… with stamps…)

The aloof Sydney crowd here did not dampen their amazingly positive vibe at the Hopetoun tonight. Their lighter songs lifted some of our spirits and between song banter with quaint jokes and antidotes gave us something to smile about. I’d love to see Skipping Girl Vinegar play to a more receptive audience. Much of their character gets lost without full crowd participation. These guys aren’t really a band you go and watch, they are more like friends that you would hang out with (probably around a campfire, harmonicas and acoustic guitars…) and join in while they sing songs about the little experiences in life most of us in Sydney take for granted as the world speeds by.

The thing I loved about Skipping Girl Vinegar is that while their music often touched on the melancholy side of life, their performance is upbeat and quirky. If you enjoy the song writing styles of Ben Kweller and the likes, you’ll love Skipping Girl Vinegar. Go check ‘em out, and give them the positive atmosphere they need to thrive off!

Am I allowed to pay out the band I’m reviewing? Go on; tell me I’m a terrible reviewer. I’m sure I’m about to contradict myself several times here – but when you reverse over me with six monster trucks of sound expect me to go a little brain dead.

I have to say I wasn’t surprised to see that the six skinny black jeans clad Hunter S Thompson types lined along the length of the Hoey bar hiding behind fringes with their arms folded watching the SGV set turned out to be head lining act Atrocities. I was highly suspicious of these guys at first as I’ve seen these types before. I usually refer to them as self indulgent wankers. I’ll throw in a compliment here – their devastating sonic rampage almost killed me with its overbearing force and almost psychedelic dancable groove. I have no idea when their songs finished and ended, and not a word was spoken between songs. Only a quiet thanks preceding the unrequested encore. Yeah. There’s still a bit of self-indulgent wank going on here, but at least they’re interesting.

In one night I believe I have experienced a spectrum of human emotion and imagination that only this variety of live music could provoke. Killer.