Super Wild Horses @ TheLithuanian Club, Melbourne(4/04/09)

Mon 20th Apr, 2009 in Gig Reviews

With initial plans to reserve Melbourne’s tramcar restaurant promptly foiled, Super Wild Horses launched their debut 7” framed by the shimmering fairy lights & historical portraiture of Errol street’s cavernous Lithuanian club.

First up, occupying an unlikely middle ground between Vice D.I.Y pin-ups & the pride of Warrigal, The UV Race blitzed through one more set in their whirlwind weekend tour of Melbourne. However it took The Twerps’ post-Camp Lo Hum debut for the crowd interspersed about the stage to rival those jostling at the bar for $6 Lithuanian brews. Matching C86 twee-pop nous with dreamy strum-alongs, the four-piece are always a completely winning proposition with tonight no exception. Even with their straw-hat clad singer’s Malkmus-ian drawl occasionally drowned out, would-be-single Dance Alone shimmies like a long lost Shangri Las spoken-word classic as envisaged by Pavement, replete with flick-knives, nicked cardigans & boy troubles. One of my new favourite bands!

Presumably only the best acts are granted the gall to pen a self-titled anthem. And so it is with Super Wild Horses, who win over the assembled audience of honorary Lithuanians nigh on instantly via self reflexive yet completely beguiling refrains of Run with the Super Wild Horses. Amidst enthused instrument swapping, the night’s promised – œR.S.L vibe’ ended up more akin to a Baltic-centric house party, with good vibrations, shambolic dancing & empty stubbies lining every table.

Endearing, whichever band member wasn’t at the microphone would act as the secret cadence weapon for the other’s songs, adding the intermittent shouts & an invariable backdrop of floor-tom heavy drumbeats. Minute long near acapella jam Blood, which once came across as a slightly dorky pep-rally chant is now entirely befitting of the Phil Spector & the Ronettes tag which adorns their lo-fi 7” debut. That is, if the Ronettes were to ever sit down & play Jenga with newly incarcerated Spector’s Wall of Sound, taking turns to steadily remove elements brick by brick until left with totally gnarly skeletal no wave girl-group pop.

It’s probably compulsory to conclude by predicting big things for Hayley and Amy in 2009, but it really doesn’t matter. As long as the Aarght! Records label can foot the $400 to hire out social clubs of post-Soviet states, tramcar restaurants or pizza joints, Melbourne will continue to benefit from the best R.S.L / D.I.Y nights in recent memory.

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