Deep Sea Arcade, Surf City,Danger Beach @ Transit Bar,Canberra (17/2/11)

Sun 20th Feb, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Summer may be in its dying weeks but it still managed to show its face in Transit Bar on Thursday night for the Canberra leg of the Deep Sea Arcade and Surf City tour. Winding around Australia for a couple of weeks now, this musical collision of The Beach Boys and The Beatles provided the musical equivalents of surf, sand and psychedelia, rousing the humble Transit patrons.

Appropriately, local project Danger Beach were on hand for support and the chilled out tender sounds paved the way for the rest of the night. Looking suspiciously like one of the Assassins 88 lads, Danger Beach plied its trade with casual, carefree aplomb.

Not long after, Surf City opened their impressive set with Kudos, a pretty blissful track with chords and vocals that swelled and wafted over the not-yet-dancing crowd. A few songs in however and enthusiasm was nothing to worry about. Crazy Rulers of The World was psych-pop perfection and the crudely titled Dickshakers Union was an attitude-packed gem. They closed with the cruisy In Times of Approach, showing us that just because there’s usually a sea separating them from our shores, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be firmly on our radar.

When Deep Sea Arcade took to the stage it was at first to rather casually check their sound and instruments. But they didn’t dally around, launching right into _Intro, their originally titled opening to a set. The last time Deep Sea played at Transit, getting people to their feet was a problem, this time it definitely wasn’t. Some people clearly mistook lead singer Nic McKenzie for that British geriatric Mick Jagger and launched themselves towards the stage with no regard to their dignities, lost in the heady rush of rock n’ roll adoration. From there things only got better, greatest hits like Don’t Be Sorry and Lonely In Your Arms (neither of which are as mopey as their titles may suggest) got people jitterbugging away, all to the great amusement of their entertainers. McKenzie must’ve been jealous, though – he came off the stage with mic and amp in tow, settling down on a glass-strewn floor and continuing the concert with devil-may-care disregard. Keep On Walking and All The Kids kept all the kids happy, as Deep Sea sent salty waves of sweat and sound over their enraptured audience.

All too soon however, everything was wrapped up and Deep Sea hopped off the stage and headed straight to the bar. The beers were poured; the patrons dispersed and the Jagger-adoring hordes were left only with the memories of the surf, sand and psychedelic sounds of Deep Sea Arcade and Surf City.