Stereophonics, Amy Meredith @The Palace, Melbourne(15/04/2010)

Sat 17th Apr, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Check out photos from The Palace here

Starting with the worst band name I’ve heard in a long time, Amy Meredith set their sights dogmatically to the lowest common denominator. With a style derived entirely from charting pop phenomenas, the band seem to aspire to nothing more than dull stadium rock. To be fair, they have the energy and enthusiasm to get the crowd going, but when every song sounds exactly like the last one no one actually seems that captivated by the music. In fact, more than one punter is shouting abuse by the end of the set. The music itself jumps between commercial balladry and electro pop with tinges of Van Halen keys added to U2 style effects laden, but ultimately weak, guitar and a singer who’s voice sounds uncannily like that of Faker singer Nathan Hudson with his perpetually whinny voice continually pushed to breaking. The band seem more concerned with laying on massive amounts of posturing than actual music and why wouldn’t they when, in their words, their only song to get radio play is called pornstar with fantastic lyrics like, “I could be a pornstar. We could leave the lights on. You can feel my heart beat. And it won’t stop.” On top of this they are the only support act I’ve ever seen that had to stoop to performing a cover, Girls Just Want To Have Fun of all things. Ultimately you can tell a band is going nowhere when they have to continually tell the audience to make some noise to feel validated.

Opening with Live n’ Love off new album Keep Calm and Carry On the Stereophonics set the tone for a set that will be dominated by tracks from said album. Having said that it is the second song, A Thousand Trees , that gets the crowd going with its simple truth of, “Only takes one tree, to make 1000 matches, Only takes one match, to burn A thousand trees.” In fact even though the set is dominated by new material plenty of room is still left for fan favourites such as Have a Nice Day and Maybe Tomorrow. At one point lead singer Kelly Jones questions the point in them coming out to Australia to play to a bunch of Brits and there are a good contention of Welsh flags and rowdy Brits present. However, he is pleased to see a sizeable response when he asks if there are any Australians in the room. A lot of the songs from the new album come off better live than in their recorded form with tracks like I got your number, Uppercut and lead single Could you be the One coming off well. However it is hard to contend with the audience’s thrill at the rockin Superman or Pick a Part that’s me.

Kelly is most definitely the focal point with more than one audience member declaring their love for him. His keenly timed lead breaks are a high point and the subtle gravel tones of his voice always hold us in his grasp, conveying the earnest heart embodied in his songwriting. We are treated to a rare intimate moment when He plays a solo acoustic rendition of Billy Davey’s Daughter before being gently thrust back into the onslaught of a full rock band.

Part of the appeal of The Stereophonics is their ability to jump seamlessly between the soft heartfelt tune to pure Rock. At one point, the focus is shifted from Kelly to guitarist Adam Zindani as he steps to the front and treats the front row to some ear shatteringly high frequencys. The rest of the band seem happy to stay out of the spotlight lost in the depths of the music.

Closing with Local Boy in the Photograph it’s only a short wait before the boys return to treat us to probably the most enjoyable track from the new album She’s Alright followed by The Bartender and the Thief and Dakota closing out a high octane encore set.