Laneous & The Family Yah @ TheGaelic, Sydney (15/10/10)

Mon 18th Oct, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Laneous and The Family Yah are a fearless bunch that’s for sure and their latest record Found Things is testament to their bravery. Their potent concoction of ramshackle beats, jazz-funk and pop mastery will leave you wanting more. So naturally their live show came with some pretty hefty expectations and it’s at The Gaelic on a blustery Sydney night where those hopes would be shattered or answered.

I always love an eclectic line-up even if it looks like the promoter’s been on the wacky tobacky beforehand and got it completely wrong. There’s something about the mess of it all that just keeps my ears ready to soak up whatever musical treats come my way. So it was to my delight when squeezing into the (narrower) Gaelic, that I found Madame de sexy Lanie Lane and Italian come Sydney beatmaker/producer MoR up on stage together, Idea Idea an amalgamation of Lanie’s cute as apple pie vocals and liquid electronic sounds from MoR’s many synths all wrapped up by a live band for the occasion. If you’ve seen Idea Idea’s latest clip for their song Set Sail then you would have recognised the familiar underwater imagery cast behind them on the night. The combination of two of Sydney’s hardest working musicians couldn’t have been any more impressive, it was half an hour of blissful Avant-pop.

The Sydney band Jimmy Swouse and The Angry Darts barrelled on stage and burst through a manic set of thrashed out classic rock that felt very Spinal Tap in parts. Sydney jack-of-all-trades Brian Campeau was on hand and wielded his axe superbly throughout, the Canadian throwing his weight behind yet another local act (as well as The Green Mohair Suits & Brian Campeau, to name but two, there could be more for all I know).

Fresh freestylers Sketch The Rhyme, might have slipped a lot of people’s radars over the last little while but the Sydney hip hop crew bring their zany A-game to the stage that’s for sure and damn do they know how to bring the party. Accompanied by a troupe of scribbly cartoonists, their rhymes are influenced by the overhead projection of the artists’ lightning fast hands sketching whatever it is that comes to mind. Standout moments were the guys performing a rap version of Celebrity Heads and getting all 8 Mile on us with a game called Deface the Face, vandalising photos of both the rappers leading to some potent disses that had everyone in the place gagging.

Laneous and The Family Yah, can be forgiven for sounding like a bunch of musically confused individuals because they just do so many genres so goddamn well. Starting with a big band bang they quickly moved into a math-rock inspired saunter that had the whole crowd looking puzzled, no sooner than had that happened, had Laneous leapt into one of the bands newies Ode To The Code, his signature hip hop mumbling interspersed with falsetto tinges, bringing the crowd to cheers and whistles.

The Brisbane horde definitely have got their sound down pat, but at times can leave you behind through no fault of Laneous and his clan. It’s just the nauseatingly fast riffs, doo-wop backing vocals and an early RHCP’s Uplift Mofo Party Plan vibe are just so damn confusing yet at the same time, so addictive! I don’t want to pin these guys down to a genre because that’d be impossible and to be honest too much work.

James ‘Laneous’ Lane as front man is supremely confident and it’s obvious in the way he so fluidly picks up his guitar thrashes it, moves on to strut around the stage like a possessed chicken and then into a salute marching like a soldier. His deft rhymes flow like honey into soulful departures that all the while are embellished by the slickness of his six troubadours ( General Beats, Pete G, Tilla, Poz, Georgia and Youka ). It’s like a giant party and reminds me what those early Architecture In Helsinki shows were all about back in the day. Sketch The Rhyme were invited to join in the action late in the set and brought their rap battle to the stage, delighting the crowd who had been so engrossed earlier in the night.

It’s a total bummer when the sound at a show isn’t up to scratch right?! Well The Gaelic have decided to sell their soul to the dark lord Gamblord and in doing so have built a pokies room that has eaten up much of the space inside the venue. So where the sound and lighting dude would have once been able to move freely from side to side, between his two desks, they’ve been forced to put the lights behind the sound desk so the poor guy has to divert his attention every other moment as he reaches around his back to blindly feel out where the buttons are. It’s like he’s reaching for a glass of water in the middle of the night and has no idea where it is. The result was resoundingly bad sound, Laneous even calling for his mic to be turned down, “Hey man this mic’s about to take off, do you mind?”

All in all it wasn’t enough to dampen an enjoyable night but was definitely enough to make me want to see these guys on a better stage and let’s face it with a kickass sound system.