Skipping Girl Vinegar @ TheCorner, Melbourne,(31/10/2008)

Thu 6th Nov, 2008 in Gig Reviews

The Skipping Girl Vinegar show started with the animation clips of their two most popular songs, Sift The Noise and One Chance and as the video played all who were assembled became like volunteers to a hypnosis act just watching the watch swing and being indoctrinated but the colour wonderland on screen. When the indoctrination had concluded Skipping Girl Vinegar (SGV) appear on a woodland decorated stage… it was like walking into a live pop-up book where in twined with the band were vines and pictures of raccoons and owls all of which were drawn by the lead singer himself.

The four piece band made up of Amanthi Lynch on keys, Sare Lang on bass guitar, Chris Helm on drums who amazingly sat on a chair so low that all that could be seen of him through the crowd was his bobbing head, and Mark Lang on vocal, harmonica and guitar. The band are Melbourne based but as you can guess from the underground success of their newly release album (which I contribute slightly to their old school library bag themed CD cover) has them travelling Victoria serenading fans and drumming up such gigs as Falls and Portland Music Festivals. SGV introduce the punters to songs from their debut album, with a few of the songs being accompanied by an ensemble called the rambling hobos, who played various instrument including the banjo and the viola. The happy go lucky indie music had everyone dancing along and apart from the long interruptions of Mark telling the crowd what seemed to be his life story as if on the Dr Phil show it was an amazing vibe.

The music was chilled out and The Corner was choka-block with the older generation of indie kids who were pumped to support the launch of SGV’s album, Sift the Noise, the wonderful thing about new bands like SGV is that they were honestly appreciative of the crowds attendance, not realising how grand their music is it seemed they half expected the only participant to be their mums and a few distant cousins and were pleasantly surprised. The band ended the night with handing out free CDs to the best dancer and the most enthusiastic wall flower in a style reminiscent of a year seven blue light disco and proceed to talk amongst the crowd as they left the venue.