The Ned Collette Band, Wagons& Dead Letter Chorus @ TheHopetoun Hotel (18/07/08)

Wed 23rd Jul, 2008 in Gig Reviews

It was one of those nights you’d mark in your diary. An all-Australian line up that wouldn’t leave you desperately waiting for the headliner to come onstage and restore your faith in live music. Because when The Ned Collette Band, Wagons and Dead Letter Chorus get together for a tour, you really don’t have that problem.

Their Sydney gig saw a music-loving Friday night crowd pack out the Hopetoun, shuffling in to see what the fuss was all about. A sell-out show down in Melbourne, ay? I’ll have a piece of that!

Local acoustic guitarist Luke Webb began the night’s music marathon, nowadays armed with bass player Isaac Harvey and drummer Tim Gannon. His soft and melodic ballads gently lulled tentative patrons into his simple folk-rock. And he loved is so much he didn’t even notice the time.

But before long, The Ned Collette Band was transporting the crowd to a faraway land, where – œ60s and – œ70s progressive folk-rock, with all its romance and melancholy, reigned supreme. Captivating as they were, these Melbournians were perhaps a little too out of this world; dissociating, almost, as though they were still in their studios playing to nobody in particular.

So when Wagons stepped on stage (complete with Footloose-headbands, cheeky smiles and a washboard) the audience were well and truly ready for some fun and games. After a song dedicated to American obesity, an Elvis cover and some timely pilgrim jokes, the charismatic (and often perplexing) lead vocalist Henry Wagon hushed the crowd and swapped places with the drummer. And so, their very accessible Johnny Cash-style country sound was replaced by a different sort of drumbeat. The kind you’d hear at a beatbox or hip hop show. I gotta say, seeing two white guys from Melbourne, clad in country-western attire, rapping and singing next to a washboard, is truly a moment money can’t buy.

Still, the night was young and local heroes Dead Letter Chorus, serenaded the attentive crowd – sweetly and at times, broodingly – with their indie country-folk-rock goodness (I know, it’s a mouthful). Singers Cameron Potts and Gabrielle Huber shifted to and fro from lead to backing vocals, intermittently swapping instruments throughout their set. This Sydney five-piece charmingly swept the crowd into Huber’s epic Muse-esque number, and then to Potts’ tender and carefree Fred Astaire, before covering Springsteen’s Dancing in the Dark (and doing it justice too!).

But soon Ned Collette and Henry Wagon jumped on stage to perform the three bands’ brilliant collaborative cover of The Church’s Unguarded Moment (which has hit radio airwaves recently, sparking the tour). It really should have ended there, but Dead Letter Chorus had a few more songs and, unfortunately, the crowd seemed to switch off by the time their set finished. Four solid line-ups, in a row, do overload the senses a little.

Still, that Friday at the Hopetoun was definitely a mighty fine night.