Sparkadia, Gin Wigmore, OhMercy @ ANU Bar, Canberra(22/10/08)

Thu 23rd Oct, 2008 in Gig Reviews

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Canberrans headed to ANU on Wednesday night for some mid-week relief from their desk-jobs, pending assignments and general day-to-day woes, for some truly brilliant music courtesy of Sparkadia. Along for the ride were Oh Mercy and Gin Wigmore.

Oh Mercy promptly kicked the night off just after 8 pm with the ANU early birds enjoying their sweet indie style. Triple J’s Unearthed winners from 2007 are not strangers to the capital and are slowly building a following. Frontman Alexander Gow has a stunning voice, beautiful lyrics and a fantastic sense of harmony. Maybe the same can’t be said for his fashion sense? The barefoot Gow, laughing in the face of ANU’s – œBar Rules’ dressed seemingly in a Huckleberry Finn inspired outfit, featuring what looked like a Mondrian print shirt certainly stood out. Nonetheless the band plays very well together and played tracks from their EP. Despite some slight sound problems the Melbourne youngsters played a great set to the still small Canberra crowd. There is no doubt we will be seeing more of Oh Mercy in the future.

After a short break and fantastic tunes in between sets courtesy of ANU, Gin Wigmore took to the stage. It was clear the lovely Gin (short for Virginia) has quite a Canberra following, with the previously only semi-interested pool players and bar dwellers moving much closer to the front to catch a glimpse of the slightly awkward, yet mostly endearing songstress. Gin’s sound is like a washing machine mix of Regina Spektor, Macy Gray, Amy Winehouse maybe even a little Soko all mixed up and maybe not quite right. This mix of influences and perhaps lack of originality however didn’t seem to phase the Canberra crowd too much at all. Instead there were a few young girls twirling in their dresses, inspired by Gin Wigmore’s tunes. The New Zealand native played songs off her EP Extended Play including S.O.S, the disarming Hallelujah and Under My Skin. Gin could probably work on her banter and crowd interaction a little, although we did discover she has taken her sick dog on the tour with her, who was waiting in the car outside! We hope she at least left a window down…

After more inspired tunes in between sets including a little LCD Soundsystem and MGMT, the patient crowd were rewarded as Sparkadia took to the stage. By this time the crowd had thickened and packed in to the front. This is a band that did not disappoint. The Sydney four piece played a luscious set lasting for over an hour. Whilst playing a predictable tracklist, this is the Postcards Tour after all; there was nothing predictable or dreary about the band or their fantastic stage presence. Stand-out tracks of course included Too Much To Do, Morning Light and The Kiss of Death.

Frontman Alex Burnett’s quiff is something to admire (Ace Ventura versus Morrissey). He plays the swaggering, charming frontman marvellously and really quite naturally. But perhaps the one we couldn’t keep our eyes off was lead guitarist Tiffany Preece. She is simply beautiful and I’m quite sure every girl there last night is currently trying to procure a pair of glasses just like hers, reminiscent of year 3.

Sparkadia say they write songs about heartbreak. And don’t they do it well. There were more than a few girls (and boys) singing their hearts out to hit song Jealousy, and who can resist the delicious anger, apathy and heartbreak in lyrics “I can’t sleep – I can’t eat – I can’t leave till I have my peace – no more fights – no more wars – no more deals to settle our scores – I won’t hide – I won’t go – become someone you used to know”. It was loud, it was brilliant, and it was perfect. After the high of Jealousy, the band took us even further finishing the set with Animals, with a Sonic Youth like guitar rock out, the crowd were impressed. And maybe the nicest thing of all, no encore.

This was a band performing in a very intimate space to only a medium sized crowd and they rocked like there playing to hundreds in a festival setting.

Sparkadia return to the capital in just a few weeks time for Trackside on 22 November, tickets are still available.