Gerling @ Rebel Rebel, Home,Sydney (19/08/06)

Tue 22nd Aug, 2006 in Gig Reviews

Home, home, home. In April this hard-core dance venue started booking international bands for an indie night. They’ve now moved to booking local bands as headliners, but they still don’t really understand what indie kids want when they go out. We rocked up to the joint at 10:20pm, assuming that the doors would be open and maybe a support act had been on already. The doors were actually scheduled to be opened at 10:30pm. Standing in the chilly air, dodging tourists we were unimpressed as the clock ticked on and the doors were still shut. ‘Technical difficulties’ my ass. One of the coolest things is when you get to a gig early and see your fave band still doing their sound check.

Once inside DJ Kato enticed us onto the dance floor with his high-energy synth pop, rock remixes and mash-ups. A lot more people would have been happy if the designated dance area wasn’t the most illuminated space in the whole venue. As soon as you stepped towards the music, it felt like you were making a scene of Paris Hilton proportions.

All the acts kept to a strict schedule of forty-five minutes each, which worked well, keeping things moving. The Tucker B’s came on, and, well, they didn’t do anything technically bad, but their sort of music doesn’t really match with Gerling or Kato. They two styles of playing, either they play these cute pop songs that remind me of the Panda Band, or these heavy anthems that are more like Cog. Snaps for the uniforms, they came out wearing these interesting mining hats that had a laser beams in the middle of their foreheads. The crowd thinned during their set, and their ten-minute shred-fest as a play out wasn’t really warranted.

Kato came on for another forty-five mins and then it was time for Gerling. After releasing their fourth album this year, eight years after their debut, you can call them a familiar act. They just don’t seem to grow up, Darren Cross is Australian rock music’s answer to Peter Pan. He’s such a regular at inner city venues that it’s just a normal night to see Uncle Daz by the bar.

The boys played a mix of old and new material. ‘Turning the Screws’ and ‘Good Timing’ have joined their back catalogue now, the majority of the crowd got into it. ‘When the Night Comes’ from Gerling 4 was performed especially well, the mix was spot on and the intensity was just at the right level. As per usual, the whole crowd went nuts for the party tunes; ‘Who’s Your Daddy’ and ‘Deepfryer’ (both from the Who’s Your Daddy EP). ‘Blood on the Microphone’ was the last song in the set, and the front row yelled the lyrics ‘I feel the psychic connection, go and sell it on the street’.

Gerling fans are devoted and quirky. There’s this group who bring a rubber duck to every Sydney gig, the Gerling boys were playing with it onstage.

Uncle Daz didn’t disappoint with the cheeky witticisms, in between songs he  mumbled out ‘Thankyou Auckland! You’re so good to us, it almost feels like home’. When they came on for an encore Darren announced the song as ‘Enter Space Capsule’, their first breakthrough single that has been deleted from their set list. They actually played their festival favourite, ‘Ghost Patrol’, and the crowd lifted the roof off the cavernous Home singing and dancing to the classic.

As soon as the band finished many people made a beeline for the door. Sure, there was five more hours of music to be danced to, but really, who wants to hang out at Home.