Skipping Girl Vinegar, MylesMayo, The Trouble withTempleton @ The Vanguard,Sydney (21/10/11)

Mon 24th Oct, 2011 in Gig Reviews

The Vanguard is a really lovely, atmospheric place to watch a live show, and the music on this night went over beautifully with the seated crowd, starting light and sweet and getting that little bit more energetic as the night went on and the space filled with a warm kind of anticipation.

The Trouble with Templeton began the evening’s show with a set of heartstring-tugging ballads about memories and old loves. Frontman Thomas Calder took centre stage armed with an acoustic guitar and a versatile, tumbling voice that is at times reminiscent of Jeff Buckley. A female backing vocalist joined him for the majority of the set and set off many of the songs with an equally as accomplished voice. The set featured a number of tracks from Templeton’s recent album Bleeder, stand-outs being the single I Wrote a Novel and the closing title track.

The best part about Templeton live, as well as on his recordings, I think, is how he evokes a beautifully immediate sense of simultaneous light and dark, largely thanks to his great use of dynamics, but also to his obvious ability to channel emotion into song. Although the set did suffer from more-frequent-than-desirable moments of roughness and disorganisation, as well as a few jarring clashes of voices and instruments here and there, the mood that these two created – strengthened by extremely sweet and down-to-earth intersong banter – was probably enough. There is improvement to be made here but The Trouble with Templeton clearly have great potential and a simply beautiful live presence.

Myles Mayo (+ The Slippery Gypsies) are a tight outfit that seem extremely likeable, though not overtly excitable, onstage. Their songs range from country-infused tunes with hints to 60s groups like The Byrds, to more obviously pop-influenced numbers like How You Done Me Wrong. While Myles’ recordings remind me quite a bit of Beck’s more mellow pop ventures, they seem more dynamic live, also making references to acoustic-based storytellers like Josh Pyke and rock icons like The Stones. This set sounded pretty sunshine-y in parts and rockier in others, with layered vocals and some interesting programmed sounds making the band sound bigger and more interesting than the sum of their parts.

While some songs sounded like they ended prematurely and there was sometimes a too-obvious borrowing of melodies from classic songs including Please Please Me and Pixies’ Where Is My Mind?, the band themselves were strong and pulled it all off pretty darn well. This is a professional group of guys that play a good set and walk offstage smiling at the end of it.

Cue the somewhat lengthy process of setting up a stage like an indie fairy-party – complete with old dial telephone, giant light-up stars and a leering monkey staring out into the audience – then a tense wait filled with expectant chatter and forest noises issuing from the stage. Not too long, though, before an explosive opening to Skipping Girl Vinegar’s set, as lead singer Mark Lang belted a sermon about love and human contact into the microphone before launching into song.

The set on offer this night was catchy and strong on harmonies, with a good energy, but for me the band seemed a bit too comfortable rather than challenged, and this left a bit to be desired. While some songs, like Wasted and One Chance were great, rollicking fun, some moments were a little dull and I couldn’t help thinking that some of the music the band members were there to play didn’t really give them a lot of room to experiment. You Can, the single from this year’s album Keep Calm, Carry the Monkey was disappointing live, and the encore fell a bit flat, ending the whole thing on a bit of a down note.

Skipping Girl is a band big on liveliness, onstage banter and aesthetic, and also one that boasts some wide-ranging influences; from Crowded House to Arcade Fire to, at a pinch, The Flaming Lips, and their live sound is good but it’s just not superbly exciting. I think that on this night there was just a bit too much reliance on comfort and not enough playing with the unknown.