Misdirection, Lucas Stone @The Basement (02/04/09)

Sat 4th Apr, 2009 in Gig Reviews

The giant projector screen retracts and Bowie’s Changes fades. Fitting really. Tonight the basement would host two chameleon-like acts that had literally – œchanged’ out of the genres in which they usually and most comfortably wear around town.

Lucas Stone took the stage first. Perched on the front edge of a low dining chair, one could instantly tell tonight was going to be a night of contradictions. Wielding an acoustic six string sporting a sticker of Homer Simpson, rather than the evil eight string Ibanez we are more familiar with seeing him man handle at the HELM of his trail blazing other band. Stone half starts his first song – half tunes his guitar and drives into The Holy Cold like mechanical cogs starting to turn. The metallic rattle and boom of his drop-D top string fills the room while husky cream covered vocals force every competing sound from the room as he rocks into the singable Once. Perhaps revealing his years, definitely revealing his influences, Stone introduces his third song, a cover of the Alice In Chains classic Nutshell. The angsty, pitch-perfect vocal lines continue the cyborg performance. Belting out a few more original tracks before treating the audience to another cover; The Police power ballad Can’t Stand Losing You. Stumbling slightly on a couple of lyrics and chords, Lucas shows some rust on his solo acoustic bones and/or that he is in fact human. The crowd delights. Closing with Levitate and Waking Up a particular line rings true – œÃ¢â‚¬Â¦ and the machine shuts down’. It’s now obvious where his full-time wrecking machine, HELM, gets the fuel for it’s fiery performances.

After a small change-over dose of (more) Bowie, Misdirection slide on stage. The boys are sporting Melbourne jazz scene all black, as tonight’s gig is advertised as – œMisdirection Unplugged’. Opening track The Gravy was fun and funky with vocal DJ scratching that worked a treat. From then on though, the genre seemed to let them down. Although each song conjured up great mental pictures of bouncing live and loud performances, in reality the songs sat awkwardly in their new setting. Each song sported: catchy hooks, tick. Great vocals, tick and melting bass lines that made you do pigeon-head, tick-tick. Unfortunately they still seemed caged. While Misdirection would rock-the-fuck-out in their preferred surroundings of a steamy venue full of sweaty boozed punters, when transposed to the acoustic, the lead guitar sections seemed a little messy when paired up with the splashy drum section. Each song could have done with slowing down a touch, you know? Let that cigar bar feel waft up onto its heels.

Continuing on the contradictory theme, the song with the most contrived name, Funk Song was great. Pretty Kitty and Never Let It Go followed and redeemed the mid set slump with quieter lead runs, Motown-ier bass lines and soaring vocals. Picture early Incubus with a splash of Mike Patton – Yeah, good huh? – that’s what they project. If only they weren’t held back by an unsuitable genre or venue or both. Before you make up your mind, see Misdirection doing what they really do: funk driven heaving rock with the knobs turned up to eleven.