Blackchords, Damon Smith,Quiet the Few @ The EvelynHotel, Melbourne (20/11/09)

Tue 24th Nov, 2009 in Gig Reviews

After sell out shows on their highly successful UK-France tour, Melbourne favourite Blackchords return to Australia in a homecoming gig to celebrate the launch of their single Pretty Little Thing with a few local support acts.

Melbourne indie-alternative three piece Quiet the Few opened the night but for a band who lists some of their influences as Wilco and Augie March, they seemed a little off their game. The overall sound level was too loud (probably more the sound guy’s fault), which made the guitars seem too heavy and drowned out the vocals. As a good band, it seemed like they just lacked a little balance, because they did some nice things throughout and frontman Luke showed his vocal flexibility despite carrying the vocal duties alone.

Damon Smith (and the Quality Lightweights) had a little more luck with their support slot, playing a nice little set full of sweet guitar and audience interaction. Their tracks included Lines Are Made For Standing In and Transfixed and Dumb., but the most impressive was their opening tune I Thought I’d Be Someone By Now which opened with some soft, mellow acoustic guitar and slowly built up to a heavier rockish sound with a nice three-part harmony. Call Up Dad was also an energetic song with some quirky lyrics and fun acapella action.

The main attraction of the night had just returned from a tour of France and the UK to launch their single but I thought there might have been a bigger Blackchords turnout than what there was on Friday. Despite that, it was still a decent little show at the Evelyn. Opening with the soothing These Lights, the wailing pianos were pleasant with a very pure sound, creating a slightly eerie atmosphere. Pretty Little Thing was then launched in style with plain old foot-to-the-floor rock, free of any complex layers. It was simply a fun song with lots of energy that people could bob their heads to.

At World’s End with its dark, melancholy rock was a crowd favourite as frontman Nick Milwright and the band began to interact with the crowd a little more, joking about Damon Smith leaving $50 on stage for them. During 22 Blackchords ran into some trouble with some bad feedback, but they were good to get around it. The sweet December came next and I was pleased to see them vary between their rockier songs and ballads to keep things interesting. For the few who think rock bands don’t really have ballads anymore – I implore them to have a listen to how well Blackchords execute theirs and will say that there is definitely a place for such songs in a rock band.

An untitled song was Milwright’s attempt at singing in French, and I have to say he does a fairly decent job! His sweet voice opened and closed with a few French lines with some electric piano lines and English lyrics in between. Switch then Diplomat were next on the list followed by a new song called Incomplete. Starting off with a softer, acoustic verse, the track slowly built up with some heavier guitars, topped with more bass and drums, then toned down to the softer, mellow acoustic guitar again. The variation of intensity was great.

I was glad to see Broken Bones – the track for their award winning video clip – get a run before the band finally closed the show with Disappear, another song that had a gradual build up into the heavier sounds that was only held back by the mellow vocals. Blackchords then returned for an encore of Raise My Hands.

It was a decent, but not spectacular evening. Perhaps it was that there were too many issues with feedback, or that the support acts never really got it going. Punters didn’t seem to warm to them, lounging on the couches or standing off to the side chatting. It was a gig I would have expected people to actually be dancing at. It was also the first time I’d actually seen Blackchords play, and after listening to their album, was expecting a little bit more, so I was slightly disappointed.

Nevertheless, you can’t hide talent where talent truly exists and there’s no doubt these guys have it in spades. They’ve proven that they can draw huge crowds in Australia and overseas and I won’t deny that they will continue to grow. The potential is there for great things from Blackchords.