Looking like he’s just stepped out of Back To The Future, Jacky Winter (resplendent in white pants, denim shirt, and what looked to be a permed mullet ) opened proceedings at the Toff In Town. Explaining to the crowd how he is in two bands – The Bowerbirds and Dynamo – Winter played solo electric guitar and sang his own songs and cover songs (mainly from the afore mentioned bands).
Winter’s high, husky vocals often jarred with the electric guitar working quite well for the most part though occasionally getting on listener’s nerves. Covering the Kinks on Big Black Smoke, Winter’s voice worked perfectly, complementing his finger picking nicely to create a dark, country sound, however for a “party band”, the Dynamo songs ( Gonna Love Me Now and Sinners and Saints ) were left rather wanting in the party department. A nice performance, though Winters would have benefitted greatly from having a band to back him up.
Next up was the intriguingly named Rat Vs Possum – having had quite a bit of a talk up recently, the band came out and didn’t try to do anything more than what they do best, which is to use drums, synthesisers, guitars and loopng/effects to play superb, mainly instrumental songs that merge genres to create a unique atmosphere. The vocals, when used, where repetitious, which could have become very tiresome or annoying, but actually added to their work (“I think I love you, but it might just be the pills” is a lyric deserving of being repeated).
Sounding like a merging of Architecture in Helsinki and Sigur Ros, Rat Vs Possum proved they weren’t afraid to take on anything. Songs jumped this way and that making the audience completely unaware of how they would end up. An ambient starting song soon shifted in oriental flavoured rock, a simplistic, childish start merged into tribal sounds before ending in a blast of pop rock and a forest soundtrack swiftly turned in a futuristic tribal bash. A wonderful support Rat Vs Possum are a band that will certainly be talked about and are sure to divide audiences.
Dan Kelly arrived with his new crew, the Dream Band, and was quick to assert his quirky humour into the fray advising that the night was going be composed of “mostly new songs” and that he wasn’t expecting so many people and probably “should have booked the Barleycorn”, with this Kelly swiftly jumped into his set.
Kelly’s ability to craft songs that are both easily enjoyable and superbly crafted with exceedingly clever and quirky lyrics makes him stand out from the usual singer/songwriter class and his onstage demeanour and witty, in depth stories introducing his songs makes him someone to endeavour to see. Backed by the band and with his left of centre view of the world Kelly isn’t afraid to sing about Australia nor of the average goings on around him, making him comparable to a lower key, easier going version of Queensland band Custard.
Of his new songs; musings on his apocalyptic dreams inspired the songs Goodbye Angry Dancer (A take on Elton John’s Candle in the Wind and an ode to Michael Jackson with Rat Vs Possum invited onstage to “bang some shit”) and Dan Kelly’s Dream. The former saw Kelly under the sea in an apocalyptic jam with Bindi Irwin, Terri Irwin and Jimi Hendrix with explosions (well… one explosion) and dolphin noises whilst the latter was “a dream about the apocalypse, but everyone had a really good time” (“I cycled backwards past the coca-cola river, underneath the noodle trees”).
Gap Year Blues saw Kelly remembering his younger days when a girlfriend would go overseas for the gap year (“But, yeah, we’ll still stay together!”) and his song on eco terrorism invited the audience to watch him place “a stick of jelly under the cooling tower” or “watch me on the telly” depending on which version the radios decided to play.
Whilst most of the night was new material, a few older songs cropped up; Sing-a-long song of the night was Drunk on Election Night involving the most offensively lovely chorus of the night and falsetto backing vocals, I Will Give Myself Unto You saw him mocking Delta Goodrem (“I’m not Delta Goodrem – born to try”) and Summer Wino didn’t fail in getting the audience bopping.
It’s unfortunate that the Toff has a curfew because it was obvious the audience was more than happy to let Kelly play his songs and muse on life/goings on for a lot longer.
to listen to their music now on 
