Oh Mercy, Megan Washington &Young Revelry @ Mojos,08/10/2009

Mon 12th Oct, 2009 in Gig Reviews

Young Revelry blasted away the crowd with their noisy oomph and onstage magic. There was shouting, intense jamming and some pretty amazing guitar solos. Seb Astone wore out his vocal chords with his full on assault of all songs, whether it was ballad type singing on Sanitize Your Thoughts or some spoken word temperance on You and I and his unleashing on all. Tom King on bass and Alex Board on drums kept the band rolling along tightly all through the set. Astone introduced their new guitarist Peter Gower who added a whole lot of enigmatic stage presence and the aforementioned guitar solos, especially evident on All the Same. His gumby like body twisted along with his sex faced expressions whilst he and his guitar were as one producing something quite wonderful. Young Revelry quite possibly knocked the socks off any preppy indie folk who were expecting something less heavy and dark, but they were good enough to get away with it.

At first Megan Washington came off as a little abrasive, possibly pissed off. Her keyboard was on a slant and in her sound check she did not seem pleased. She seemed to be singing at us, like she had to, rather than because she was enjoying it. But every time she spoke to the crowd this impression wore off a little, as she opened up and showed her story-telling prowess and quirky sense of humour. She seemed to warm and bubble a little and started to win over the seated crowd. On a superficial level, her songs seemed pretty and cute, but as the lyrics developed they deepened to be at times funny, at times a bit odd and at times sad and very real. Originality of her lyrics were the key of setting her apart from all the other female singer-songwriters, like kiss me quick before I turn into my mother and songs about human-gorilla relationships leading to a woman being crushed to death by an ape.

If there was an ARIA award for most attractive band, Oh Mercy would surely be nominated. Ladies may ogle singer/guitarist Alexander Gow, guitarist Thomas Savage and drummer Rohan Sforcina; and men may swoon for the sweet and lovely bassist Eliza Lam. But, you may say, who cares? It is simply the cherry on top of a pie of endearing stage presence, charming melodies and creative lyricism.

Oh Mercy were confidently laid back on this their first tour in support of their debut album Privileged Woes. Gow’s vocals were breathy and emphatic which meant we could clearly make out the masterful lyrics that are simple, clever and interesting all at once. Gow’s sense of humour added a lot to their stage presence. He told stories of what the songs were about – from making love to your cousins in Seemed Like A Good Idea, to Ms Bennett his science teacher in In My Stride, to not wanting to hold hands with a “lovely” girl because you wish to remain single, to one about Eliza Lam making toast for him.

Harmonies were sweet and the band rollicked along. Savage had a crack at vocals on a new song and seemed quite nervous but pulled it off and it made for a nice change of scene. The crowd lapped it up, obeying Gow’s prodding to move forward and fill the 5 metre gap that he so hates, and his pushing to dance. Old and young were there enjoying the melodies. Even Felicity Groom showed up and joined in on the last song of the night, Lay Everything On Me. Their music was sometimes catchy pop, sometimes ambient folk, sometimes a little bit funky, a little country, a little rock … but all times sultry and lush, making for very enjoyable listening. They played a couple new songs that indicated we won’t be seeing the end of Oh Mercy anytime soon, thank goodness.