The Hot Lies, The GetawayPlan, Chrystolite @ UCU Bar(14/07/2006)

Tue 18th Jul, 2006 in Gig Reviews

The book I’m reading at the moment chronicles some of the icons of rock and roll in the 1960’s and 70’s. Rather than discussing the music itself it is all about the business. One of the most interesting people profiled in John Landau who made a name for himself as one of the first true rock critics. Most noted are his failures to hit the mark, most famously when he lambasted the Jimi Hendrix classic Are You Experienced? His critiques however were all based on the sound of the bands and his opinions.

So leads me to Friday night’s show, The Hot Lies were headlining, supported by Chrystolite and The Getaway Plan. When I arrived Chrystolite were on stage playing their little guts out, well just their guts out really, and did a decent job of it, whilst they didn’t stand out, their set didn’t grate or annoy. Their song structure was simple but clean and competent. It seemed like it was going to be a good night.

As The Getaway Plan leapt to the stage and played their opening riffs my hand immediately reached into the pocket for my earplugs. Whoever was sitting at the mixing desk decided it was time to play it loud. Now loud is OK, but when there are only 160 people at the venue turning the volume knob to eleven is a bit over the top.

The Getaway Plan’s modus operandi is screamo hardcore mixed with vocalised harmonies. As I’ve alluded to before the whole screamo thing really doesn’t do a great deal for me, yet I’m a big fan of The Deftones; go figure. The reasons are two fold, firstly there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of merit in just screaming into a microphone, for all I know they could be screaming about having sex with kittens. Secondly the vocal style actually detracts from the music being played. The vocals often clash with the instruments creating jarring moments of pain and whilst it may be the intentional to create some form of sonic shock, how on earth can an entire set of that be enjoyable. Whilst bands like Sonic Youth have experimented with jarring sounds, their experiments have not translated into the same success as those of Radiohead, who’s music can be as equally angular, and jarring.

What really confuses me is that I’ve gone back to listen to The Getaway Plan after the fact and their song structure is really solid, with some great vocal harmonies and I actually quite enjoy it. I was sober as a judge when I saw them, and I can’t recall any of that; what stuck out to me was the amount of screaming into the microphone. When I compared their live act and the recording they seem like chalk and cheese. The crowd however really warmed to the set, although by the end of it many eyes were wandering and there was an increasing number of people out under the pergola having a smoke.

When headliners The Hot Lies took the stage an almighty cheer went up. Having achieved recognition on Triple J it was unfortunate that the local promotion was so poor, in just that week both Kisschasy and Gyroscope had played to sell out all ages audiences. Their set, whilst only forty-five minutes in length, showed a real depth of talent. The crowd spent a good portion of the evening bouncing along to the tunes. In contrast with The Getaway Plan, you could actually hear the lyrics and the vocals added to the music rather than detracting from it. The best of their originals was ‘Promise Me’, which drew a huge response from the small crowd. The Hot Lies are yet another band who have a bright future ahead of them.