Julia and the Deep Sea Sirens,Margaret Helen King, Brannan @The Greenroom, (25/07/08)

Sun 27th Jul, 2008 in Gig Reviews

Julia and the Deep Sea Sirens and friends braved the cold night air in the capital to play at The Greenroom on Friday night.

It was a surprisingly small crowd at The Greenroom but once the projector screen come stage curtain rolled up, local raconteur Brannan kicked off the night with a laid-back set of old and new songs about girls, life and even a cover of Monty Python’s The Galaxy Song.

The small gathering of punters on the night included some there for a rowdy game of pool while others were there for a quiet drink with mates at their weekly haunt. It seems few were actually there for the music.

When Margaret Helen King took to the stage the crowd numbers grew with a few faithfuls making their way to the front of the stage. You can be forgiven for thinking Margaret Helen King is a solo artist, but instead she’s a young indie-pop quartet with splendid melodies and loads of stage presence. They opened their set with Orbit with all four lending their vocals. You quickly realise that their sweet two-girl two-guy four-part harmonies are their – œthing’ with no apparent frontman or woman as such, all four can sing – very well. Other standouts include Move Faster, It Makes You More Alive and Sing Sing Along with keyboardist Catherine admitting that Sing Sing Along is actually the hardest song to sing along to. The catchy Well We’re Laughing was a crowd favourite inciting a sing along and the first show of dancing for the night. Margaret Helen King’s sound is truly refreshing with few Aussie acts taking on full girl-guy harmonies as well as energetic arrangements, it’s a wonder why they’re still unsigned.

By the time Julia and the Deep Sea Sirens emerged, the crowd had grown smaller with only the devoted few staying on, either way the main act were still the highlight of the night. The show was the official – œunveiling’ of new guitarist Spoon – armed with an orange guitar, complete with two orange fluffy dice. Opening with Come With Me, Julia later confesses she hasn’t got a set list planned and calls the shots as the night goes on. Julia, a natural performer is mesmerising as she moved in waves over her guitar through the country sounds of Let Me Count The Ways and In From The Outside where her distinct Aussie accent seeps through. Bassist Smitty added a unique touch to their performance by taking a bow to his bass on a few songs including the aching Lover’s Sea.

Playing tracks off their self-titled debut to a mainly sit-down audience, the popular Knots In My Hair had the crowd’s full attention but it was the emotive Wounded Soldiers that showed off her honest lyrics and fragile voice. But the climax for the night was the playful finger-snapping The Night Is Young – a change of sound with the shoo-wop shoo-wop’s provided by the guitarists. Julia and the Deep Sea Sirens are an impressive live act and although they didn’t play to a packed house, they still brought warmth to a cold Canberra night.