The Cops, the Pip BransonCorporation + Bridezilla @ theAnnandale (09/11/06)

Tue 14th Nov, 2006 in Gig Reviews

Being at the Annandale as a Sydneysider is more like going home than being out.

Bridezilla cast five ominous petite silhouettes on the bed sheet covering the back wall. With a name like that I was prepared for a heavy rock collective of shaggy haired boys. Instead I encountered a mystic machine pushing passive aggressive tension through the air like the stage was an eerie cemetery waiting to erupt with unlife. It almost seemed right that the place was still more or less empty as the band played a somber opera. The violinist swung around as if her feet were firmly planted on the ground, the lead singer danced like a rope bound robot and the keyboardist helped beer into the guitarist’s lips in a dark parade their music sashayed through the air like a back ribbon falling from the sky.

The Pip Branson Corporation silently wandered on stage afterwards all seeming like they’ve just done a 9 to 5. Pip Branson wears a crumpled suit and his tie is nervously loosened. When they started playing I wondered if their strict simple rhythms were due to lack of talent. But I realised their corporate thrashing were more an echo of a metropolitan heart. A song was introduced with the sentence “This is a song about love gone wrong in the Eastern suburbs.” Another with: “This is a song about love gone wrong in the inner West.” Every time he spoke I felt the pang of disillusion and quiet skepticism in his self deprecating voice. But then again there was that moment when, through a clamouring electronic intro, I thought I they were playing Goldfrapp… There was something uplifting about this bands grounded stance. I’d give Branson a pay rise for the banter alone.

A drum roll almost seemed appropriate. Sure, The Cops had recently been supporting Dallas Crane but they hadn’t headlined a gig in over a year. From the horizon of Come Together 2005 everyone thought they saw a new Cops album, lingering fairly close in the sky. But alas… it was just a bird,. just a plane. Now… with Rebecca (bass) and Simon Cartel (lead vocals and guitar) presenting yet another reincarnation of one of Sydney’s prodigal rockers, after having parted from Love Police and floating to Inertia, a new yet familiar Cops has jumped up and bitch slapped everyone into paying attention again.

Cartel becomes more ambitious in his vocals. A little less growling a little more purring. The Cops have always had an amazing touch with ecclectic musical arrangement with a traditional rock edge. This time, though still bass driven, a melody emerges like dirty smoke from asthmatic lungs. And I’d wondered whether a new sound would kill them. That’s when the last line up began to crumble… but they still had the fire and they set the whole place up in smoke. A drunk man in the front row had his back to the talking Cartel. Cartel stops and nudges him with the head of his guitar and signals him firmly to turn around. Yeah, this is the Cops, mate. You don’t turn your back on the Cops and it seems no one really did.