Skipping Girl Vinegar,Francesca de Valence, CharlieMayfair @ The Troubadour,Brisbane (13/02/2010)

Sun 21st Feb, 2010 in Gig Reviews

It is the night of hope, as they say, the evening before Valentine’s. Charlie Mayfair (previously known as The Cardboard Kids) enter with If I Fell Down, quickly displaying the vocals the band has been harmonizing lately. With a country pop feel the band has a great deal of potential and while all the vocalists are talented, they seem to battle at times for volume. Lead vocalist Hannah ‘s voice is strong though the band seem to rely a little too much on her high notes. Sans drummer, the band’s performance tonight seems a bit average, and it would have been excellent to see this young band at full strength.

Next is Francesca de Valence, 2008 winner of the Los Angeles Music Award for International Songwriter of the Year. After a calm and relaxed start the set continues and songs such as Season of Love and In the Middle are imbued with a cheerful, strong energy that lifts her vocals and perks the audience’s attention. With a bit of tweaking to the set list, de Valence is a musician to keep an ear out for.

Marching on stage to their ivy-covered microphones and customary woodland creature cut-outs, Skipping Girl Vinegar are clearly the star of the evening. Tonight they have three additional members on violin, trumpet and trombone, and the Melbourne outfit come alive on the back of their new single release, One Long Week. Their energy is like a shot of light into the crowd – between lead man Mark Lang and drummer Chris Helm there are infectious grins moving like a wave from the stage, which itself seemed to bounce.

New tracks are sprinkled between album favourites like Sinking and Sift The Noise. Keyboardist Amanthi Lynch emerges from off stage with plates of delicious chocolate fudge for the crowd, displaying the band’s informal approach to crowd interaction. With strong audience participation and an inexplicable knowledge for how to bring the inner bogan out of any audience, Skipping Girl Vinegar are becoming a staple on any folk rocker’s gig list. Their set comes to an end and after pre-prepared encore song Get The Hell Out Of Town we file out, wishing that we didn’t have to do as the song title suggests.