Ménage a Trois @ TheHopetoun Hotel, 30/01/2005

Mon 31st Jan, 2005 in Gig Reviews

On an archetypal Sydney summer’s sultry night I was faced with either the barrage of Lleyton Hewitt’s fist pumping histrionics and cries of “COME ON!!!” or a barrage of guitar rock at the Sydney institute that is the Hopetoun. I quite sanely opted for the latter.

I was there to see a band that I was recommended to by friends who had known half the band in a previous life in the dark grey part of life that is known as school. With gin n’ tonic in hand, and back against the chalkboard, I listened intently to this up and coming four piece from Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

Clearly influenced by ‘old school’ punk bands such as The Clash, The Cure, Joy Division, the three young girls and one guy [yeh I know the name doesn’t make sense, it could be meant to be ironic, but it’s catchy nonetheless] put on a set that by the end got the enthusiastic crowd bopping their heads and tapping their feet to the rhythm.

Melodic yet hard and powerful with actual quality vocals, a commodity hard to find these days in Aussie punk bands, they left me with the impression that this year could be big for them. They sure had a lot of lads in tow, and I think they were all impressed with sexy stage antics of the three girls and the nervous and self-effacing banter of lead singer Neige.

A cohesive and energetic set yielded many highlights including a self-described “fuck off song” which had quite a vigorous punk stomp rigour to it and the middle part of the set had a gentle, in relative terms, pop sensibility to it.

The closer was a tour de force with the three guitar sonic attack lending it an early Joy Division sound – before the keyboards and synth – and proves that intelligent and thoughtful punk rock is still around; you just have to look for it real hard, past all that awful ‘Cali-punk’ stuff that all the 14 year olds who wear pink ‘Von Dutch’ trucker hats are into.