Dead Letter Chorus, Two HourTraffic @ The SandringhamHotel, Sydney (03/07/09)

Wed 7th Jul, 2010 in Gig Reviews

After trekking across Canada and Australia for near on a month each, Dead Letter Chorus and Two Hour Traffic pulled into the Sandringham Hotel in Newtown to park their bus for their final show of the Covered By Snow Tour. A number of of the bands friends were present to celebrate the occasion.

Joining the tour for this particular show was Fergus Brown. The first thing I noticed was his electric guitar, being that he was performing solo it seemed odd to not see something even partially hollow in his hands. As it turned out, his band were having a night off and he was presenting his quirkly pop rock songs of love and loss alone.

Although a somewhat quiet to start his show, Fergus really began to interact with the crowd halfway through his show, even happy to respond to my polite heckle. He had an enjoyable light hearted presence which rang true in his lyrical content and song rhythm. This set gathered some decent momentum as his confidence grew, and pleasantly shocked the crowd with his final love song dedication to the vagina.

Next up, Two Hours Traffic greeted us with their clean, crisp, tight, Canadian pop rock; keyboard and sweaters included. These guys are the sort you would take home to your mother. You could tell this band was well rehearsed and it showed with their confidence on stage. Neat chord changes and impeccable timing that certainly managed to get the crowd bopping

All pretty swell hey? Yes, but nothing outstanding unfortunately. There is not much negative you can say about this band and their performance. Sure, if you want to get the audience to clap, you raise your hands above your head. If you clap at waist height it just looks like its part of the song. But thats it, otherwise it was all 4/4 beat pop rock, no heavy tracks, no really slow ballads. Just nothing spectacular.

Then the moment finally arrived. Dead Letter Chorus took to the stage for the last time on this tour. And what is the first thing that comes to mind? Clinical. You could really tell these guys had been touring for a while. The band consist of Gabrielle Huber on vocals and mostly piano. Cameron Potts on vocals and mostly guitar, Michael Faber on lead, Tristan Thorne on bass and the very relaxed Lee Carey on the skins.

This is folk, country and rock chopped and changed from song to interlude and it is a very pleasant mixture and texture that unravels between your ears. The set derived for tonight meant the first few songs of the set belonged to the angelic voice of Gabrielle. “You voice is the fucking best ever!” was how one punter described it. I’d prefer to say Kasey Chambers without the whine, mixed with the smoothness of Roy Orbison. This girl can sing.

As the set moved on, Cameron took control of the stage and more of the lead vocal. The songs were strong and the performance entertaining. The rest of the set provided a failed clap attempt, a guest song with members of Two Hours Traffic, A failed encore attempt, an old crowd favorite with a successful attempt to get the crowd singing along and 15 people on stage singing at the completion of the final song.

Perhaps not the perfect night Dead Letter Chorus were looking for, however it was a good one. A more mellow style of music makes it hard to get the crowd reveling, though they were certainly enjoying the performance in front of them and I could not see one person walking away disappointed.

Check out the photos from the gig