Dan Sultan and Alexander Gow @The Ellington, Perth(22/07/11)

Sun 24th Jul, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Check out pictures of the night by norabeahan here

Alexander Gow from band Oh Mercy and Dan Sultan met and decided to do one show together at one of their locals in Melbourne. Their publishers apparently hijacked the idea and planned a nation-wide tour, of which both Perth shows sold out very quickly indeed. Thanks must go to these sneaky publishers, the west side certainly appreciates it!!

The Ellington was a curious pick for a venue, as it is usually host to many and varied jazz artists. One wondered how Mr Sultan would fit with his rock and roll stylings. Very well, in fact as the two men performed stripped back mostly acoustic sets of their more subdued but still sublime songs and some laidback versions of some Australian classics.

These covers were highlights of the evening, including Great Southern Land and To Her Door. These songs were bookends to their individual sets, and displayed a juxtaposition of these great, meaningful almost traditional Australian songs alongside two of the best modern songwriters of this country.

Gow sang a few new songs and fared well without his usual band accompanying him. Kiss Like Strangers Do was aided with Sultan on harmonies before he exited stage right to transition into Gow’s own time. Songs were accompanied by delightful anecdotes told by Gow and his dry, demure demeanour. Yes, it is a matter of fact that Mr Gow dressed in his mother’s clothing and wrote a song from a woman’s perspective. Yes, it is a fact that Gow wrote a song after having a dream about Alanna from Masterchef being a mermaid in the Yarra River serving food to drunk people.

Not only is his storytelling so matter of fact, but songs sung with a straight face about drinking from someone’s Blue Lagoon; alongside another with lyrics such as “give me crack and anal sex”... Thank you for your honesty Mr Gow and the beauty with which you introduce these concepts to us through song. He manages to shock but soothe all in one breath as the originality and bravity of the lyrics combine with such beautiful vocal tone and sweet melodies. He provides such a delightful insight into the “modern man” and has no fear to tell it like it is, which is a breath of fresh air for someone of such a young age.

Dan Sultan is such an important musician of present day Australia, he also is a man with a drive to tell stories and important ones at that. Sultan had expressed that he was intending on taking a break before this tour came up but thankfully he managed to make it along in spite of some flu-y symptoms. Sultan made use of the Jazz club’s lovely grand piano to enable his usually rock and rolled up songs to be toned down and exhibited in a way for the audience to relish the lyrics.

Sultan touches on many issues of Australian society today and through his description of his songs we got to learn that behind the great rock songs are some pretty damn important messages. Get Out While You Can we learn is about a husband telling his wife they will sell their possessions just so she can sail to a better land with a people smuggler while he makes the sacrifice of staying behind. Enemy is about driving trucks; and a new song he has written about saving the Kimberley after his time spent on the boat protesting up north. But it wasn’t all serious, we heard that Dingo is a song to publicly shame an old housemate who would steal and sell their stuff, an creative alternative to taking vengeance in other less law abiding ways. And there were some gold old love songs such as Your Love is Like a Song which is always a winner and nice to hear stripped back; and Walked Through My Dream which he dedicated to his girlfriend Jade.

All in all it was a beautiful evening, only slightly marred by restless patrons shuffling about and noise filtering down from upstairs. Everyone with an interest in the future of Australian music should definitely check out these men who are carrying the torch from greats like Paul Kelly who apparently (and appropriately) is the coach to Sultan’s football team.