Donovan Frankenreiter @ CoolyHotel (15/3/11)

Thu 24th Mar, 2011 in Gig Reviews

It’s a surprisingly fervent crowd for so early on a school night; plastic cups filled with beer occupy most hands, and those hands are attached to a fairly broad cross-section of punters. The duo currently strumming away look to represent the New York indie-rock scene, yet sound like a delay-drenched, reverb-soaked folk band; there’s even a delicious hint of flamenco to the lead player’s licks. The leather jacket-clad frontman stands and sings through a greasy mop (a-la-Cobain), stamps on a bass-stomp box and holds rhythm on an acoustic dreadnaut-cutaway. His longer-haired compatriot nurses a classical acoustic guitar in classic seated guitar pose. It quickly becomes my opinion that Sticky Fingers is a shit name for such a quality act. Each dreamy yet powerful track seems well crafted, well executed and equally well received. While remarking to a friend how good this beer and this duo is, I’m sure a Pink Floyd cover pricks my ears, or maybe they’re just that good.

By the time Peter Allen’s Rio accompanies the main act to the stage, the place is rather bumper with a surf-slanted, female dominated crowd – must be the ‘tache! You’d be forgiven for thinking that surfies have gone all ‘scene’ and are no longer into cruisy, floaty acoustic tunes, but like me, you’d also be wrong. Donovan Frankenreiter is one of those characters that’s impossible to dislike. Enviously hate, maybe. Dislike; no. He lives the life many could only dream, dividing his time between being a Billabong-sponsored ‘free-surfer’ and a professionally touring musician. Musically there’s no denying he’s found a formula that works and has settled on it. Each track is unnervingly similar to the one before in terms of lyrical content, structure, rhythm, tempo, the lot. But he doesn’t seem to claim the contrary and so he gets away with it. Donovan all but admits it; he embraces the nonchalance and others embrace him for that.

Having said that, Frankenreiter CAN play the guitar. Though most songs see him sticking to basic, open chords, there’s a few instances where he does let fly with some soulful lead runs and solos. I’m relieved by the first of these as I was starting to wonder how anyone could justify playing a Hendrix-style upside-down Fender without venturing beyond the novice realm. His band too is quality. The set dodges monotony with a few smartly placed break-down jams that swirl into the land of psychedelia. The keyboardist plays trumpet, the bassist plays blues-harp and the guitarist plays lead guitar, well.

With a fourth album released last year, Frankenreiter has quite a selection of fan-pleasing tracks to choose from; Lovely Day, Life, Love and Laughter, What You Know About Love, Move By Yourself, Papa plus he’s released two cover albums from which tonight we hear INXS’s Don’t Change.

Few artists openly and obviously love what they do as much as Donovan Frankenreiter. He looks honestly overwhelmed with the adoration he receives which in turn makes you like him even more. This is no stop-the-press show, but it is feel good tunes and a feel good crowd. Cheers Donny!