Merry Fest 3 – Rock vs Folk@ The Polish White Eagle Club,Canberra (20/5/11)

Sat 21st May, 2011 in Gig Reviews

‘Local, original, world class,’ read the stamp on punters’ wrists as they came in from cooler climes and into the school hall-esque warmth of the Polish White Eagle Club for the 3rd Merry Fest. On the menu was a smorgasbord of local bands – The Ellis Collective, Waterford, Mr Fibby, Fire On The Hill (a late replacement for Voss) and Super Best Friends – representing the opposing sides of folk and rock. Which side would emerge victorious?

Local folksters The Ellis Collective took to the stage first, promising to try and warm things up a bit, though lead singer and guitarist Matty Ellis, seemed to be warm enough in his trademark blue singlet. The Ellis Collective offered up a laidback take on folk, with Ellis’ voice, raw and honest, blending perfectly with the rich sounds of cello, fiddle, the odd bit of musical saw, bass, slide guitar and the slinky sound of drums played with brushes. Emma Kelly, on fiddle and musical saw, harmonised well with Ellis, bringing additional life to the wonderful storytelling inherent in so many of The Ellis Collective’s well-honed tunes such as What it Means and Wanderings.

Representing the first of the night’s rock contenders, Waterford continued to warm up the crowd with talk of the (allegedly) coming Rapture and allusions to fire and brimstone, with lead singer Glen Martin quipping that those who ended up in Purgatory would likely be stuck in open plan offices in Civic for eternity. Luckily before that could happen, the crowd was treated to a wealth of new material from the band, which seemed to get increasingly rockier with each track. Despite Martin’s warning that the fact that they were playing a new song was code for “…we don’t know how it goes yet,” the band pulled off an energetic set of undeniably rocking songs, intricately weaving together Martin’s distinctive voice with guitars, bass and drums in a steadily increasing wall of sound.

Mr Fibby proffered a unique brand of folk, complete with theatre and crowd participation, choosing to perform at ground level rather than onstage. Familiar faces from The Ellis Collective made an appearance alongside an animated storyteller, who would have been as equally at home in a circus tent as the ringleader as he was in the centre of the floor of the White Eagle. Mariette, a love story told in two halves, got the crowd chuckling with its story of a lovesick poet eaten by a crocodile, while another song told the story of Lucia, a woman both unlucky in love and in receiving a cup of tea at the correct temperature.

The members of Fire On The Hill filled the stage of the White Eagle (close to overflowing), while their music got some of the more enthusiastic members of the crowd to the dance floor. The band played a blend of cruisy rock and roots that would be the perfect soundtrack to a late night highway drive, complete with a 12 string pedal steel guitar which Lachlan Coventry put to good use in a few of the band’s earlier numbers.

After a longer interlude than the previous changes, Super Best Friends took to the stage. The trio launched a shock and awe rock attack on the audience, with the lead singer’s guitar strapped across his back like a weapon at the ready while he played a small keyboard and roared into the microphone in Karma Karma. Super Best Friends, whilst clearly representing the side of rock in the night’s battle, also showed hints of electro and punk influences, with the bass player at one stage exchanging his bass to play the Tetris theme on his new rather folk toy, a piano accordion. These “super best friends since year eight,” gave the stayers in the audience a real treat, breaking out tracks like the upbeat Ready Aim Fire, keeping the crowd entertained until the very end by rocking out all over the stage.

It was a close match between rock and folk at the White Eagle, perhaps too close to call, but if you were in the crowd, you certainly enjoyed a night full of local, original, world class music.