Big British Sound: BertieBlackman, Whitley, Big Scary,Pikelet @ The Corner,Melbourne (06/05/2010)

Sat 15th May, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Check out photos from the nigh here

The Big British Sound is a show put together using some of Australia’s significant emerging independent artists to celebrate clothing brand Ben Sherman’s British heritage. Each performer was to select two British covers by musicians they admire to perform in their set.

Launching into their opener Autumn, indie rockers and Melbourne music scene mainstays Big Scary began what was to be a short ‘n sweet set. Front man Tom Iansek went to change from keys to guitar for their second song and, after having technical difficulties which saw him hand his guitar over to support staff, there was a slight set change that had Big Scary launching into one of their British covers. Drummer Jo Syme and Iansek both have wonderful on-stage chemistry, with Syme actively performing as the second half of Big Scary rather than the usual passive drummer type who can be found at the back of any stage doing their thing. Before performing Apple Song , Syme asked “anyone watch the Mighty Boosh?”, recommending the British comedy to an eager crowd. Falling Away followed cover of Die Trying’s Conquer The World, before Big Scary exited stage left.

An excitable crowd awaited Pikelet as they prepared behind the red curtain; the crowd jumping around, eager to hear what unfortunately would be quite a disappointing following act when compared to the previous crowd pleaser. Many of the audience looking bored and some as if they might fall asleep as Pikelet performed their set; perhaps this wasn’t quite their usual fan base.

Pikelet nonetheless showcased their mildly world and hippy flavour with songs inspired by the sun and by bees found in front woman Evelyn Morris’s back yard. Something Pikelet did have, though, was a wide array of instruments; from the usual guitar and drums to xylophones, bassoons and chimes. Morris has a wonderful strong voice, but with the lyrics heavily echoed, one could hardly make them out. For their British covers, Pikelet performed Gerry & The Pacemakers’ Girl On A Swing and Broadcasts’ Man Is Not A Bird, on which there were some technical difficulties that had Morris apologising to the audience stating, “We don’t usually do covers, so just bear with us.” After some polishing, perhaps one could form a better opinion on Pikelet, at this stage though they need to go back to the drawing board to re-work their sound engineering, overall sound and audience engagement.

After a decent wait, the crowd’s patience was paid off when the curtains were pulled back to reveal a lone guitarist. Whitley engaged the audience so well that he even outshone the headliners with more smiles, laughs and general interest in his performance. Opening with Poison In Our Pocket, Whitley began setting the tone for chit-chat between songs while making comments about his recent illness and as the audience responded, he corrected them by telling them “I bet you haven’t had what I had.”

Launching into more of his earthy tunes with I Remember, Whitley gave the audience something of a telling off; “You’re all behaving awkwardly; I’d like you to stop please.” He performed his cover of Orgy’s Blue Monday before again projecting his awkwardness onto the audience, telling them that, “It’s almost like you showed up five minutes before it started behind a red curtain!” Whitley also had something to say to Faster Louders little sister, Mess + Noise , when he informed the audience that it had been misreported that he hated Melbourne by the online blog. He concluded his comments with, “Fuck you Mess and Noise!” before he commenced ‘guess the song’, awarding audience members who guessed correctly with t-shirts. Before his time was up, Whitley performed The Submarine.

Bertie Blackman gave a strong, sharp performance that sadly had little to no audience interaction. Come To Bed and a sped-up cover of Phil Collins’s In The Air Tonight seemed to hit the spot with a crowd wanting to hear well-known classics.

An audience who do not ask for an encore is rare, but this particular crowd seemed to be quite tired, wanting to head home to their warm beds on a cold Melbourne Thursday, having had their fill of live music and British covers.