I Heart Hiroshima @ NorthcoteSocial Club, Melbourne(01/10/2008)

Thu 2nd Oct, 2008 in Gig Reviews

Having a gig on a week night often doesn’t pull in the crowd. The few people who turned up for The Fearless Vampire Killers on Wednesday night hung in the peripheries of the room, restless. Even with the vigour of the young band, few ventured forth. The piercing voice of Sean Ainsworth broke through the psychedelic rhythms of the guitar and bass, bearing quite a bit of resemblance to 60s rock and roll music. Their songs were littered with instrumental jams strongly influenced by blues. The drummer Dylan Lieberman went nuts on his instrument at the end of a song, he looked close to hitting himself. Al Marx deftly swayed his way through the set playing the lead guitar with his jazzy tunes, while Whill Dempsey occupied a world of his own behind his curtain of fringe, fingers dancing on the strings of his bass. Although the band took a couple of songs to warm up, they ultimately managed to pull more than a handful of punters to the front of the room.

Susie Patten started off I Heart Hiroshima’s set by explaining how they hadn’t played a gig in awhile, hence it was possible they had forgotten how to play their instruments. This joke was followed by many others for the rest of the evening, most started by Susie taking a dig at the other two guitarists, Matthew Somers and Cameron Hawes. She commented on how it was good to know people still liked guitars and not synthesisers, not-so-subtly referring to Peaches who was playing the same night. The casual banter within the band continued on for the rest of night, consisting of complaints of guitars going out of tune, calls of Matt being a knob, and how the cowbell just wouldn’t stay in its place. Yes, there was the use of a cowbell.

It became more evident as the set went on that the band really had not played a gig for some time. There were discussions on stage on how the ending of the new song Here It Comes went and wrong notes being played at the start of Shaky Town. But all in all, it was obvious that the band members themselves were having a ball of a time.

The powerpop group sounded similar to the likes of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Architecture in Helsinki, but with only three members, I Heart Hiroshima did an excellent job at creating as large a sound as the other bigger bands, likewise with The Fearless Vampire Killers. Unfortunately, the crowd didn’t show as much enthusiasm as the band deserved. The front of the room was spotted with people sitting on the floor, while the rest of the standing audience hardly moved to the regular beats of the songs.

The coarse shouts of Matthew’s singing were complemented nicely with the soft feminine lull of Susie’s. Cameron joined in more with the vocals towards the end of the set. When there were two more songs left to go, Susie asked the two guitarists which song they would like to be played first. She was just about to get some audience participation, but Matthew went straight ahead and picked Teef, eliciting a sarcastic “well I guess we’re not playschool” response from Susie.

With their informal stage presence and quirky jibes, I Heart Hiroshima made certain everyone in the crowd had a smile on their faces by the end of the night.