The Gifthorse, A Death In TheFamily & Samiam @ Club 299,Brisbane (18/09/2009)

Sat 26th Sep, 2009 in Gig Reviews

The Gift Horse began the evening to the amount of punters that I guessed would show up for the entire evening. I was most impressed by the amount of people who came out early for the Brisbane gents. However this is about where the amazement ends. Though they have energy packed songs, these didn’t feature on the stage this evening.

A Death In The Family didn’t bring much to the table either in the way of a mind-blowing performance. However, this being said it would be nice to know who the bright spark was that put the sound desk practically a metre from the roof. The acoustics in 299 are certainly nothing to write home about, and getting a good sound from that sound desk would be close to impossible.

While being a bunch of lovely gentlemen, tonight the sound wasn’t as friendly to the Melbourne natives. While working through the motions of the set of powerful and well written songs one couldn’t help but cringe thanks to poor sound. Thanks to this I’d be hard pressed even guessing what songs they played, so I won’t.

If I were American and I’d just turned twenty-one I’d be on the road to Vegas baby. However twenty-one for American outfit Samiam meant a trip to Australia, which is greatly appreciated by Australian fans. Once you’ve resigned a band to one that you’ll never see live it is somewhat similar to going through the five stages of grief. Then once you’ve come to acceptance, they go and announce a tour in Oz and then you’ve got a whole different set of emotions to get through. I must admit that I prefer over-excitement to bargaining any day.

While not a sell out there was a solid thirty-person mosh pit for what would be one of the favourites of the evening, Factory. The danger of having a career spanning twenty-one years, seven albums and fourteen EPs/splits/live albums is that the average set size is never going to cut it. Plus punters are never going to walk out completely satisfied which was doubled tonight thanks to one of the worst attempts at mixing known to man. Everyone should love their rock loud but there is a point at which one has to forego loud for clarity. Tonight this theory wasn’t evident at all.

Full On, She Found You, Take Care and When We’re Together had punters grinning from ear to ear. Sunshine has always been on of those songs that I have held in high regard. Every music lover has them; the song that comes a long at a point in your life when you really need it and remains an important part of who you are. I can assure you, once through the overpowering distortion I was lucky I had my best friend beside me and a beer in my hand otherwise I would have been a blubbering mess. That is one thing I, along with others, can strike off the ‘To Do’ list.

All that aside, Dull and Super Brava also showed up on the set list. If you were deaf, this would have been the show of one’s life however on the musical side, Jason Beebouts vocals made appearances and the ability to lip read was invaluable. Sergie Loobeoof’s guitar had moments of brilliance that were drowned by distortion that flowed through the speakers. I know for a fact bass player, Sean Kennedy was on stage but as for being a master of his trade, the poor sound means that will be determined at a later date.

Does this mean this show was anything short of awesome? No. Well maybe a smidge but the fact that they appeared on a stage in the ‘smart state’ made tonight something to be remembered. Any problems with this I would suggest you Cry, Baby, Cry.