Kitty, Daisy & Lewis @Billboard, Melbourne(06/01/2011)

Mon 10th Jan, 2011 in Gig Reviews

On this steaming Thursday night at Billboard, Kitty and Daisy Durham opened alone, performing an a cappella number – perhaps a rarity taken from their parents’ collection – through which the pompadoured sisters eased the clock back, back, to the pre-Beatles musical landscape where the family-band reside.

Hailing from Kentish Town in North London, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis (at 17, 22 and 20 respectively) have taken a childhood love of Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson and the Sun back-catalogue, cultivated by their parents, and re-invigorated it for contemporary stages; sporting the quiffs and threads to match. As brother Lewis and parents Graeme and Ingrid (formerly of The Raincoats) joined the stage for their jump-blues infused version of the Johnny Horton-penned Mean Son of a Gun, this family’s take on forties and fifties blues, bebop and rockabilly sent round a hip-rolling, devilish swoon.

Returning to Australia for the second time, and still touring their home-recorded, self-titled debut album – of which eight of the ten tracks are covers – the band walks the delicate line of any revival act; in defying the push for originality in favour of re-creating a niche, beloved sound, they must inevitably fight the tag of being simply derivative, of offering nothing more than a glossy re-package. Along with Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, or even Tame Impala, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis are the latest bunch to refute that charge, letting their performances hush any naysayers. Beyond the immediate novelty of the talented kids being scarily young and intimidatingly adept at jumping between vocals, drums, keys, lead guitar, banjoes, xylophones, piano accordion and harmonica, they are exciting performers in their own right; driven by a fire in the belly that comes across as more passion than ego. Their parents provide the anchor, Graeme on rhythm guitar and Ingrid on standup bass, while the siblings constantly switch lead roles.

While their set may be cover-heavy, their promise lies in how well the originals slide in as seamlessly, dare I say authentically, with the rest. The Lewis-penned and sung Buggin’ Blues is infectious, stomping good-times, while (Baby) Hold Me Tight wields a sweet xylophone melody and snappy snare drums, echoing the tiki twang of Honolulu Rock-A Roll-A and Kitty’s voice carrying the innocence of a Christmas carol. While occasionally a cover can seem a tad flat or lacking the conviction of its originals, others like Hillbilly Music and the irresistible thump of Going Up The Country are wondrous fun.

The band were joined mid-set by Jamaican trumpet player Eddie ‘Tan Tan’ Thornton, bringing an extra kick to their sound, and lighting up Ska Song; an instrumental number that had the room grooving, possibly pointing to a stronger ska-influence on new material.

Propelled by nostalgia, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis are definitively a niche-band, perfected from the equipment down to the look, epitomised in Lewis’ damn fine suit. Whether the band will grow from that, and whether they even want to, is for the future to tell. For now, band and audience alike were thrilled by their TARDIS-like trip. The doe-eyed escapism as they sing, “I’m going back to the land of make-believe,” seemed to throw the last fifty years or the advent of digital music into momentary irrelevance, re-instating a world where Elvis is still King. As the band were later spotted giving the packed-out Cherry floorboards a work-out well into the early morn’, the movement is clearly well alive, baby.