Saturday night saw those adorable tragic-80’s-haircut-‘metal’ throwbacks the Galvatrons visiting Perth for a fashion show at Myer, but while they were in town they stopped by the Rocket Room to make us relive some of our worst 80s rock memories, and rethink them.
There is nothing worse than seeing a band that would be absolutely brilliant -as long as your fingers are firmly plugging your ears. You see a band, not just hear it, and as much is what you look like shouldn’t matter, to many audiences, it does, so it is important for bands playing live to give their audiences something to watch as well as hear. Thankfully, all the bands that comprised Saturday’s fare at Rocket Room had the musical skill and half a kilo of style to pull off the killer moves they were waving about the stage.
Recent MTV Kickstart finalists Tracksuit are an interesting mix of influences, a dash of Britpop, a dash of Oz punkabilly (Close your eyes and that could be a double bass.) and a dash of old school dirty-indi-garage all rocked together in the nice little Perth womb we have going here, to create something that reminds you of things you like. Even when Tracksuit reminds you of bands you don’t like, you may find yourself digging it, leading to a realisation that the arrogance of a different and unnecessarily successful band had previously ruined an entire musical style for you. There was no trace of arrogance in Tracksuit’s performance, appearance or demeanour, except perhaps with that one song trashing emos, but even then, the band admitted by way of introduction; “we don’t get it”.
Loving every minute of their set, this band managed to draw the early crowd’s attention with their enthusiasm, and the head nodding-toe-tappingness of their tracks until they had a sizeable chunk of the punters grooving away in a clump between the sound desk and the bar, in fact the crowd was clumped everywhere there was a stage view around the bar except on the dance floor where the lights were so bright.
Now sans violin, Streetlight’s sound has changed somewhat, not necessarily for the worse, but the lack of one of the more unusual instruments does put them in danger of falling into the indie rock generic. It is too soon to tell, and after four years, the loss of one of your band members is bound to take some adjusting to. It will be interesting to see what direction Streetlight take their sound in over the coming months. Living up to the title of frontman, Crafty’s familiar hat and rockstar strutting fit perfectly with the vibe of the night so far. Yes, of course he can sing, you wouldn’t be much of a band if your frontman couldn’t, but there is an onus on a dedicated singer to make sure the audience has something to look at whilst they are listening to your music, so they don’t get distracted by a conversation. This man is a photographer’s dream, striking well-practiced poses with a regularity that even the novice shooter can anticipate.
The Galvatrons are guaranteed to cheer up the sourest music snob you can find after their worst day ever. Seriously, make friends with one, and drag them along to the next Galvatrons gig to see a rare sight; a delighted smile and the slightly confused eyebrow that is indicative of the ideological war inside their head “This is awesome!” Vs “Only the un-musically educated like pop” (They’re supporting Def Leppard Oct 31)
The truth is, The Galvatrons are as much fun as a glam rock fancy dress party. Of course, they know their way around their instruments and have a knack for a catchy hook but they also have the uncanny ability to draw the audience into their fun time, so that even if someone showed up with a prissy expensive lambswool jumper draped across his shoulders like a Yuppy college graduate from 1984, he would be able to imagine himself in tight leather pants with tattoos and a nipple ring for the night.
The Galvatrons aren’t really doing anything musically new, but their shows are so much fun, it doesn’t matter, and by sounding like something the audience already knows, the band has already jumped the first hurdle of bands that write their own music, which is getting people to stop and listen for long enough to know they like it.
