The Medics, Blackchords, She'sAn Ocean @ The Evelyn(28/02/10)

Wed 3rd Mar, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Those who arrived early enough at The Evelyn were met with the soothing swells of She’s An Ocean. Fronted by vocalist and rhythm guitarist Micah Hodge, She’s An Ocean brought the rain to Brunswick Street. Hodge set up vocal shop in a consistently high upper register for a male. The two telecasters were surprisingly warm, the sunburst lead constantly saturated with a seamless delay affect. The tenderness of the band truly comes on behalf of the girls, with the frequently soft drumming of Elise Addlem and the considerate piano lines of Gabbi Cass. The quiet five-piece gave the allusion that the sound desk was functioning at half capacity. They are best described as a more ambient version of The Middle East, with almost nil aspect of the upbeat folk. One thing that unfortunately stood out in the silence of the audience was the gigantic gap of time between some of the songs. Although it is obviously still early days for this band, the last song that they played already showed signs of maturity, moving through meditative themes and building to a crescendo that brought lead guitarist Greg Kroussoratsky to his knees.

Causing all that rain resulted in a leaking roof above Gabbi Cass for the most part of the set, and now it was Blackchords lead guitarist Damien Cazaly’s turn to face the music. Blackchords opened with the cruising melodies of Switch. The band’s use of samples in Diplomat could not be salvaged once drummer Nick Cheek lost the beat in the fold back, and the soft sirens were consequently ignored. Cazaly shredded so hard to make up for it that I wondered how expensive of a habit guitar strings were for him. Next, the boys launched in to 22 from their debut self-titled album, bringing it to a sombre close that illuminated the silence of the humble Sunday night crowd. An eerie drone sample separated singles Pretty Little Thing and At World’s End. Some new songs were on show, camouflaged in the same polish as all the familiar album hits. Until The Day I Die is a future track worth getting impatient over, involving mallets on the floor tom, a strong use of pentatonics from guitars, and impressive counter melodies in the vocals to tie up the song. The last song was Broken Bones, and in contrast to The Curtin recently, no encore was necessary this time.

The Medics banner was draped across the stained red backdrop of the Evelyn, and it portrayed the themes of the ‘This Boat We Call Love’ release that they were launching here in Melbourne. Kahl Wallace set up two microphones, one pervaded with reverb and used as an FX microphone. The boys opened with the first track of the release, Her Song, with Wallace on an acoustic guitar. The band dropped out respectfully, completely revealing Wallace’s sweet vocal timbre when he sings, “there once was a girl she sailed away and never came back”. It played like a predictable launch, song two again matching the record, being the transitional Amongst The Corn Field. The band was very accomplished with their pause and subsequent descending upon Wallace in the lyrics “the boy’s been sent to fight”. The shift to double time in the ending was well received.

Wallace adorned an electric guitar for some new tracks, the first being Griffon, which incorporated alien-like noises possibly from an analog delay pedal, machine gun spurts in the bridge, and a driving chorus truly complimented by the drumming of Jhindu Lawrie. Next was a new track called Golden Bear, a demo version is currently available for listening on their MySpace. This standout track involves the lead guitarist doubling up as a drummer on a floor tom or any piece of roof and wall that he can find, before moving over to the Xylophone. It has unique vocal melodies shared by Wallace and Lawrie in the pauses, similar to the ones you would find in Wolves. Like most of their songs, the track has a strong rhythmic sensibility, driven by an authentic drum and bass invention.

The introduction of Sinking Ships was brought to us by an Apple I-Mac before the boys finished the night with the epic Joseph – getting a few members of She’s An Ocean to contribute to hitting things and singing “you build walls to cover your pride”. The lead guitarist of The Medics hung from the main beam on the roof where the water was leaking, testing the old Evelyn’s structures. It was The Medics –a mixture of brooding menace and mayhem.