Waterford, Mornings, Savages @Transit Bar, Canberra(13/1/11)

Sat 15th Jan, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Transit Bar provided a fertile spot on a Thursday night to hang out with friends and take in some homegrown Canberra music in the form of Waterford, bookended by the very different styles of Mornings and Savages (formerly the Warm Jets).

In the last six to 12 months, Transit has developed the habit of turning the music up just a little too loud (a few visits prior, the sound was so loud that the metal outdoor furniture was vibrating!) which makes for a less than satisfactory gig experience, adding a great deal of white noise and distortion. Unfortunately, this makes it somewhat harder to grasp the subtlety of any lyrics that might be sung during the course of the night.

Luckily for Mornings, who were up first, this wasn’t a problem. Whilst they may look like your traditional rock group with two guitars, bass and drums, Mornings are a purely instrumental group. With an ambient electro-distorted rock feel, they provided the perfect introduction to the night and a welcomed backdrop for the happy hipsters in the vicinity. Despite lacking vocals, their music in no way lacked the energy or dynamism required to keep the punters in the crowd happy and appreciative. Mornings are a tight outfit that I’ll be looking forward to seeing more of.

After a brief interlude, Waterford took to the stage. Waterford are a confident, competent band with a loyal local following who are regularly rewarded with a show full of energy and catchy tunes. Thursday night at Transit Bar was no exception. Their set was characterised by a raft of upbeat songs, with lead singer, G.M., providing infectious Brit-pop vocals throughout, including on the rather aptly named London, England. Unfortunately some of the vocals were at times a little hard to make out with Transit Bar’s distorted volume to blame. New drummer, Harry, slotted smoothly into the mix, showing great dexterity and the ability to absolutely nail the occasional pause or execute the sharpest of cymbal crashes at the end of a song. On bass, Pete was relaxed and moved about the stage freely. Again due to Transit’s distortion, the second guitar was a bit lost in the mix though seemed to be playing a more chordal role to G.M.’s lead. For the first time in a long time, Waterford remembered to bring some of their EPs along so the crowd could have the pleasure of taking home a few of the gems they’d heard that night, like the ambling Waldeningstone and the catchy Painted.

Following on from Waterford, Savages had an altogether different approach, adding keys to their mix of guitar, bass and drums. This was my first exposure to Savages and it was a bit of a mixed bag. Savages are a reasonably young band that show a lot of promise, with dynamic drumming and for the most part, strong instrumental interplay between the band members. However, their set seemed to be a tale of two bands, with lead vocals alternating between keyboardist and guitarist, with the guitarist having the stronger voice of the two. The addition of an electronic bullhorn on a couple of their numbers, however, didn’t help in the ongoing effort to try and make out what the lyrics being sung actually were. With a bit more experience under their belts, and less sound distortion, expect to hear more good things about Savages.