Amy Meredith @ Mojo's,Fremantle (23/09/10)

Mon 27th Sep, 2010 in Gig Reviews

On a sunny evening the Fremantle breeze swept a variety of punters to Mojo’s in Fremantle to witness what is the sudden commercial fame and success of Amy Meredith.

Opening for the night was the ever-so talented Carl Fox and his back up band, taking on an easy mellow, indie pop sound with an electronic feel to brighten up the room. He shared the lead vocals with his other guitarist and produced a well defined harmony that developed into a sonorous power of energy. Performing songs from Fox’s Chunky Rainbow record, the audience swayed and toe-tapped along to the music in true Freo nature.

The Novocaines took to the stage next and after not being allowed to tour with Amy Meredith to Margaret River due to being deemed ‘too heavy’; they were keen to show punter’s just how hard they could rock out. Singer Corey Marriott approached the stage acting, dressing and oozing the persona of a rockstar as they smashed out their garage rock with a 60’s influence on an unsuspecting crowd. The latest song from the band, Lover’s Teeth, echoed throughout the venue forcing punters to bob heads and liven up in preparation for the headline act.

Wildly passionate girlie screams were coming from the audience as Amy Meredith took the stage. Opening with Late Nights there was an instant surge of energy and stage presence that brought punters occupying the beer garden to huddle in close to the stage to get a good view. Pornstar brought back the screaming from the ladies in the audience and Mojo’s turned into a swarm of dancing and jumping bodies.

As the songs went on and the band started playing This War, there was no denying the straining sound that was Christian Lo Russo’s voice. His voice struggled to hit a high note and his tunes could not be held. Every time he jumped in the air, his voice went with him. For a frontman to sound like he suffered from tone deafness, perhaps the band should consider professional lessons seeing as they jumped straight into commercial stardom and didn’t exactly climb the ranks with years of practice like others.

Lo Russo, however, cannot be faulted for his performance skills. His energetic and animated stage presence was enough for most of the audience who were happy to dance along to the jumping bean in a gold jacket. Kiss Me Quick was a cheeky number and Black Eyes produced a sound that resembled some early music of The Cure. Their latest song, Young at Heart, had a fresh, summer feel to it, comparable to Youth Group, and fans were bouncing in ecstatic pleasure.

Musically, the band played decently and the guitarists were ultimately the strength that carried the band, but as they exited the stage and left drummer Kosta Theodosis alone, an instant cringe worthy approach to a drum solo took place and there wasn’t much hope left. He sounded as though he had been playing for six months and not one beat flowed through to the next, the acoustics in the venue didn’t help either as Mojo’s is known for not having the best sound. If you can’t double kick, don’t pretend you can; or practice a lot before going on stage.

The crowd wasn’t so intent on listening intently to Lo Russo’s voice as they were singing loud enough to block it out and some songs didn’t sound nearly as erroneous as others. One of the highlights included a cover of The Buggles’ Video Killed the Radio Star and, after coming back on stage, an awesome ending with the ever-popular Lying, which had even the tired punters dancing and singing along.