Joey Cape, Tony Sly & JamieHay @ The Zoo, Brisbane(29/05/10)

Fri 4th Jun, 2010 in Gig Reviews

For some, Jamie Hay, is more identifiable as a member of Melbourne’s Fear Like Us. Tonight, like all the performers, he would forego the loud instruments that usually surrounded him – a single man with an acoustic guitar.

Old Gods, New Tricks opened his set with no one daring enough to get closer than two metres from the stage. Fearless and Hopeless kept his eyes remained closed while his voice enveloped the room. Hay spent the majority of the night with his eyes closed, only opening them momentarily to address the crowd or take a fleeting glance at the fret board.

But the highlight came when Joey Cape and Tony Sly grabbed guitars and joined him on stage for a cover of Jawbreaker’s Sluttering (May 4th). Jawbreaker fans around the room were stunned, in a good way.

The Zoo filled with a crowd eager to see punk rock troubadours, Joey Cape and Tony Sly and how their songs would translate into a stripped back, acoustic format. The Lagwagon frontman opened with the ever-popular Alien8 complete with the traditional Four Non Blondes “What’s Going On?” breakdown. In a effort of either self-mockery or irony, Cape altered the lyrics to “What’s going on, I hate this song”.

The set meandered between the two friends with Sly’s Not Your Saviour grabbing an immediate response and moving into the Cape-penned Move Your Car while their keyboardist, Brian (from NEW YORK) injected keys into the background.

Cape offered Lagwagon staples for most of the evening including Know It All, Wind In Your Sails, Making Friends and Razor Burn which delighted many while also throwing solo selections sparingly into the mix. Sly on the other hand, sang No Use For A Name favourites Coming Too Close, Life Sized Mirror, Dumb Reminders. He also provided the crowd with songs from his solo album 12 Song Program including Via Munich and Toaster In The Bathtub. These were quite foreign to the crowd and in turn, reduced the number of punters who were exercising their vocal chords for the evening.

The highlight of the two hours for many was a cover of the NOFX song, Linoleum. Two mates, tearing through a song made famous with the crowd by another friend was certainly a sight to behold. Without the interference of electric guitars and the pounding drums, both Cape and Sly reorchestrated all these simple punk songs to powerful acoustic numbers.

There is something in an acoustic set that leaves a performer at the mercy of their own ability. The slightest imperfection in guitar or voice is brutally exposed when there’s nothing more than a well crafted piece of wood between the singer and the crowd. At no point did either gent falter. Not once could this reviewer find something that didn’t fit. Not a note flubbed, nor a lyric missed.

Nor should they. Not carrying less than 40 years of experience between them and purveying the songs that they’ve penned and most likely sung thousands of times.

The pair’s first solo expedition to Australia is a world away from the punk outfits that originally bought them to the forefront of the minds of punters. It was however, in no way less powerful than any of their previous Brisbane performances.