Earth Hour Unplugged: TimRogers, Wagons, Blackchords @The Zoo, Melbourne(27/03/2010)

Sun 28th Mar, 2010 in Gig Reviews

A feel-good vibe settled in the air at the Zoo, with aromas of an Aussie barbecue wafting over a sea of picnickers.

The twilight concert, featuring Tim Rogers, Wagons and Blackchords, was in support of Earth Hour, a worldwide initiative encouraging an electricity-free hour to lower the global carbon footprint and raise awareness of climate change. Professing a typical Australian outlook, Blackchords frontman Nick Milwright said that even if the event is tokenistic in nature, “we should be doing something” while Wagons chose to perform Drive All Night Till Dawn, a song that “celebrates cars” and their fuel-guzzling operation.

The night’s stage was a fairy-lit rotunda and as the event title suggested, the sound was acoustic – unplugged to suit the environmental bent of the evening.

Opening proceedings was Melbourne band Blackchords. The three-piece began their set with the gentle acoustic sounds of Raise My Hands. Milwright’s deep voice rang out over soft melancholy strumming and the buzz of a lone harmonica, welcoming the night under drizzling rain.

Backup vocals on Broken Bones were provided by a yawning lion in a nearby enclosure, while a tribe of meandering toddlers and young children were backup dancers for the evening. Perhaps the chilled, complacent, pretty vibe was working overtime, but the mini-humans wandering through the maze of picnic rugs were abnormally adorable! Bending their little knees and throwing around their little arms, at times this munchkin army threatened to steal the show.

The trio continued to pump beautiful relaxed music into the open night, playing Switch and Pretty Little Thing – a single from their recently released debut album.

Before retiring for the night, Milwright detailed a hilarious anecdote that saw him drunkenly misinterpret the word ‘Zoo’ as the number ‘200’, and frantically shout into his mobile handset, “I’m outside the two hundred! I have no idea where the two hundred is! I can hear lions screaming!”

Wagons lead singer Henry was explosive with sarcastic hilarity, dropping one liners like a stand-up comedian. His deep hollow vocals were on show in Man Sold and Trying to Get Home. He also employed this vocal capacity to berate lead guitarist Richard Blaze for using an electric guitar during Earth Hour and instructing the audience to avoid applauding any of his solos.

The alt-country act delivered a brilliant cover of Elvis Presley’s “at once beautiful and dumb” Never Been to Spain – mixing up the lyrics with zoo-inspired comments about cougars and monkeys. They played novelty songs about Melbourne suburb Glen Waverly and iconic American musician Willie Nelson.

Dubbing himself “Uncle Henry”, the engaging front-man continued to jokingly heckle the group of small children gathering below the stage with a creepy psycho kindergarten teacher persona, warning them: “I am going to corrupt you. Just being in this vicinity to me will cause you to burn in hell”. Very sweet. He took a moment during Love Me Like I Love You to demand of a small boy “Child! Love me!” and then serenade this child with a guitar solo. Enthralling viewing.

For all the playful larrikinism, the band is a solid outfit with real instrumental prowess. Their sound was as rock and roll as acoustically possible with a distinct country and blues vibe. They ended with “sea-change gone wrong” song Good Town, which proved a highlight of their set, balancing the dark imagery of the unsettling Pamela May.

Tim Rogers walked onstage to a dark night, all classy candour in a jacket and top hat. The You Am I front-man fitted the acoustic bill naturally, delivering a set that displayed the prevailing sound of Australian rock with a southern twang.

His band, quite notably comprising a double bass and violinists, played Under the Flightpath before the string section lead into The Luxury of Hysteria. Two wonderfully talented violinists took the cue from the lyrics “the band strikes up Amazing Grace again” to play a few bars of the classic song.

After playing a sting of what he called “sepulchral songs”, Rogers lifted the mood of the night with some upbeat numbers, showcasing the “classic 1998 New-Folk style that was burgeoning around Melbourne at that time”.

A true Australian rock icon, Tim Rogers can front a rock band and play an intimate acoustic gig such as this with subtlety, class and a kooky demeanour that saw gems such as this resonate through the dark zoo of sleeping animals: “I appreciate you all staying around so much that I just want to slice you up … and spend the rest of the year eating you”.