78 Saab, Myles Mayo & theSlippery Gypsies @ The GraceEmily, Adelaide (28/04/11)

Tue 3rd May, 2011 in Gig Reviews

A sizeable crowd was in the Grace Emily for the gig, especially considering it was a Thursday night in Adelaide. The dark ale was flowing freely, and people appeared pretty excited. Especially me. It’s probably good to point out now that Quiet in the Lab! played first, and as a member of this band I’m reasonably sure it’s a conflict of interest to review myself, and also a little weird. So let’s just say the band had fun and no one threw anything at us. That we noticed, anyway.

Myles Mayo you might remember from Special Patrol, who did pretty damn well in the local scene. To be honest though, it was never really my cup of tea. It appears I’ve mellowed in my old age, and I find myself really enjoying his brand of post-roots folky pop music. Considering I’d only heard one song on the radio before the show, they did a great job of drawing myself and the crowd in. The band Myles has assembled is tight, and feels like they’ve been playing together for ages. There’s a youthfulness in these tracks I don’t think I ever heard in Special Patrol, a sense of fun and abandon that is somehow held together perfectly. Well worth seeing!

(plus they loaned us gear, and that always gets extra marks from me!)

As for 78 Saab, to be honest I was excited enough hearing soundcheck! The band opened the evening with Sunshine, to an almost-audible “eeeeeeee!” sound. The set covered their entire career, with everything from Never Ending up to their latest single, Warm Jets included. They also brought along a keyboardist (playing a wicked Hammond) for the ride, adding a lovely lushness to the sound. They’ve been playing together now for 15 years, and have an onstage communication only time can bring. It was one of those shows where you lose track of everything for about an hour, and and come to afterwards only just realising the show is over. This, of course, means it’s pretty hard to single out highlights of the evening, but the new songs stack up against anything the band has done previously and that’s pretty much the most important thing right there! Good times.