The Harpoons @ The Birmingham,Melbourne (23/12/08)

Mon 29th Dec, 2008 in Gig Reviews

After my friend’s assurances of the absolute amazingness of “some band from Geelong” I duly coughed up a tattered fiver to attend the dual residency of The Harpoons and Badlands DJ’s at the deliciously dingy Birmingham Hotel. I hadn’t intended to review the gig but The Harpoons are so fucking cool that i walked away feeling that it was my duty to report one my new found love.

But where to start, where to start? I guess I’ll start with the sound. While steeped in the soaring harmonies of sixties pop, it guess you would call it soul music. But it has decidedly danceable edge to it. You know, lots of British Invasion guitarwork and stop-start Jonathan Richman type stuff. It’s kind of hard to pin down; almost like watching Ray Davies make sweet love to France Gall while The Zombies and The Beach Boys party in the next room. It’s just really good fun.

But while it’s easy to gauge influences, they’re interpretation of these myriad sounds are unique and original. Take killer track Swim My Baby for instance. It starts with a highly melodic sing and echo verse and chorus and escalating into a rock and roll belter, with a nifty surf rock solo thrown in for good measure. You never really know what’s coming next. And it is this unexpectedness which is perhaps the band’s greatest strength. The four-piece, led by the brothers Madin (Jack and Henry) all swap lead singing duties, giving every song its own distinctive tone. It’s hard to believe that the winsome Tonight, Tonight and the driving If You Wanna Dance were performed by the same band. The only commonality between tracks is the pitch perfect harmonies and the contagious energy of The Harpoons, who, if possible, seemed to be having even more fun that the rapturous audience who packed the band room.

Well anyway, the band is great and all but I’ve been holding off for four hundred words, and I now must devote the remainder of this review to the talents of the sole female Harpooner, Bec Rigby. I could plumb the depths of Microsoft Word’s thesaurus list to find the right adjective but I’ll keep it simple by saying that she is quite simply amazing. She’s got the vocal range of a sniper rifle, from husky baritone to warbling falsetto, firing syllables like beautiful melodic bullets.

The quasi-torch song Faith, really shows off her pipes and was, for me, one of the most affecting songs I’ve seen performed live this year. But the highlight of the show was undoubtedly Hey Girl. Building on the dual chord picking of Jack and the calypso brushes of drummer Marty she sings of lost and found love, her voice rising from a lilting croon to a soulful shout in the chorus, until the band joins in with rousing harmonies. It has single written all over it.

But reeling it in a little, my new found crush should not distract a reader from what was a consummate and very enjoyable performance from a young band who are only sure to get bigger. Apparently a debut EP is in the works but there’s still the chance to catch the final night of their Birmingham residency on Tuesday (30/12/08). It is the best five dollars you will ever spend.