Fearless Vampire Killers,Small Tough, Demon Parade @Newtown Workers Club,Melbourne (18/07/09)

Tue 21st Jul, 2009 in Gig Reviews

I’d like to begin with a word or two about the bandroom at the Newtown Workers Club. It’s a freezing, desolate, glorified shed with a bar shifted inside. On the whole, its disappointingly uninviting, especially when set aside live venues only minutes walk away. To you, the reader, this might not seem like such an important point. But when you’re there in the midst of a strikingly cold Melbourne winter, it matters. I must admit I was surprised, given that this was the launch of the Club’s new monthly night event, Bootleg, and first impressions were always going to be important.

To help get things under way were five-piece Demon Parade, building with the slow grinding distortion of guitars. They eventually hit their stride, injecting life into the execution of their craft, but the song itself ultimately never strays too far from its humble beginnings. In my research, I wasn’t at all surprised to find what the band list as their influences. Its entirely accurate to me, at least, the ‘Parade taking cues from Oasis and The Dandy Warhols, for example.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t grab hold of anything distinctive about them from song to song, and I found everything to be slightly formulaic. The same key is employed far too much across their set, and the result was a plateau of sound, ensuring interest from the scarce crowd soon flat lined. This is perhaps attributable to the fact that the band really is a guitar-dominated affair. There is a keyboard used throughout, but it is sadly drowned out by the sheer volume of the six-stringed instruments. About fifteen minutes in, I felt like I had heard everything I needed to from Demon Parade. I would like to see them get a little experimental with their direction. After all, as musicians, its not beyond them. Here’s hoping for sparks of creativity fly in the future.

The crowd had increased significantly for Small Tough, with a healthy contingent of teenage support lining the front of the stage. A strange and frenetically scattered, psychedelic swirl of instruments ignite into a frenzy of guitar lines. Ben Efrat probably gets this all the time, but his vocals, and emotive mix of raspy snarls and growls prove not only powerful and memorable, but of an amazing likeness to one Caleb Followill of Kings Of Leon fame.

There’s a great sense of life and passion about Small Tough, with a handy dash of daring, too (the keyboardist donning a skintight lyrcra skeleton suit midsong, much to the appreciation of everybody). The next song begins with two drum parts combining to provide a rollicking stampede, the tempo and the spirit maintained throughout their performance. All in all, it was a colorful experience, and Small Tough showed themselves to be a band with the will to stand-out and the talent to do so. It was an unfortunately short set, ending with Bad Man – which perhaps, as songs go, ran a little too long, funnily enough.

The headliners, the Fearless Vampire Killers, certainly have their admirers, packing out the dingy bandroom. And why not? After all, it was clear from the get-go that FVK were all about accessible, instantly-likeable pop-rock (with the emphasis on rock). Just about every song has something enough to work as a hook, especially seen in Tell Me What You’re Trying To Say, the vocals shared for the chorus, committing itself to your memory effortlessly.

They tend to remind me of the kind of stuff you would have thought commercial radio should be eating up – which, as it happens, will mean they’ll be unfairly ignored for the time being. They keep it simple whilst remaining totally effective, and its easy to see why they’re popping up everywhere lately: the Fearless Vampire Killers are an impressively tight unit, skilled in the fun, surf-rock they set out to deliver. And it is fun; its refreshing to see a rock band take things a little less seriously, The Monkey Song reminding us all of the value of letting go and dancing like crazy, if only for around two minutes. To me, at least, its not the most thrilling genre in the world, but they’re a polished and professional group and definitely deserve a look. They close with The Deadline, with a kind of delicious riff reminiscent of the great Johnny Winter.

The performances definitely rose in standard as the night progressed, and overall, on numbers alone, I’d consider the launch of Bootleg a success for the Newtown Workers Club. But when the lead singer of your headline act makes – at least as I understood it – a jibe at the venue, or specifically, the bandroom, maybe it should be taken on board. If you’re checking out Bootleg, may your evening be as entertaining, but a word of advice: rug up.