Pinky Beecroft and the WhiteRussians @ Northcote SocialClub, Melbourne (17/01/2007)

Sat 20th Jan, 2007 in Gig Reviews

Whilst there was some confusion over just added support act, Trash and Chaos, as well as a lot of excitement over Melbourne’s first look at Pinky Beecroft’s new band the White Russians, I can’t understand why the Dukes of Windsor couldn’t win over the crowd at the Northcote Social Club.

Playing songs from their debut self-titled album, the Dukes opened with ‘You Scream’, quickly followed by ‘Tear This Party Down’. Jack on vocals hopped from the stage and in front of the crowd early, making room for him to move and belt the tunes out in a manic fashion. Once back on stage, Jack swung his microphone into the floor; quickly realising he had to borrow Scott’s. When ‘Lover Now’ began, it was evident the band wasn’t waiting for their frontman as Jack multi-tasked his singing and jumping with fixing Scott’s microphone. ‘Handsome Man’ and ‘Pretty Girls’ followed, still with no real reaction from the crowd, which lead Jack to plead for louder and higher clapping from punters before asking, “Is anyone clapping above their belly?” Additional silence met the singer as he asked for requests. Whilst the band sounded incredible – partnered by Jack’s crazy stage antics (bouncing around the stage, never leaving his feet still) – it wasn’t until the Dukes sang ‘The Others’ that the crowd willingly reacted and looked to be enjoying themselves. The brilliant ‘Children of Tomorrow’ closed the set as the crowd finally realised how much fun the Dukes can be.

The venue quickly filled in the wake of the White Russians walking onto the stage. Followed by former Machine Gun Falacio front man Pinky Beecroft, (who was found carrying a glass of white wine) the crowd eagerly livened up. Opening with ‘Fabulous Driving’, a track off their self-titled EP, Pinky established immediately that the White Russians were very much a different band to his former outfit. Proclaimed by Pinky as a “mellow” song, ‘Driving’ built to a fast paced climax, perfect for leading into the funky rock track ‘Got Control Again’. If these two tracks weren’t enough to convince the crowd Pinky was on a very new track, it was up to MGF cover ‘Unsent Letter’, a song that had always had a curious gentleness when played live by MGF.

Pinky’s banter between songs was as entertaining as the music itself, thanking the crowd for coming out on a Wednesday night when they would have had things to do Thursday morning, then admitting, “Not that I would know what any of those things were”. ‘Someone For Everyone’ was next, both a moving and comical song which told the story of a boy in love with someone he can’t have then getting hit by a learner driver and falling in love with her instead. The much slower track ‘Make Your Selection, Press OK’ was introduced with an advanced apology, “This is for the indie kids, and I hope I don’t offend you”. Moving again from mellow to funky, ‘The New Miss Sweden’ soon sent the house bopping around again, with the main lyric, “All I wanna do is take somebody to bed”, bringing a set of wry smiles across both the band and the crowd. Speaking again with the crowd, keyboardist Cameron Bruce smugly asked a girl walking to the bar to make sure she bought him a drink. The band then decided that as they were in the Social Club, they should get to know everyone, turning up the lights whilst Cameron waited for his order and seeing the “beautiful crowd”.

A cover of ‘These Days’ as well as new songs ‘This Hangover’ and the appropriate ‘My Haircut Will Come Back Around’ ended the set throughout which Pinky took many swigs from both his bottle of wine and his thermos flask. After only a minute off stage and loud cheers from the crowd, Pinky returned by himself to the stage to perform the moving ‘Waratah Street’ on his keyboard. The band then returned to the stage to perform ‘Floor’ and a brilliant rendition of Portishead’s ‘Glorybox’ which, like the opening track, started slow and mellow then built to a powerful and engaging climax.

Pinky Beecroft and the White Russians engaged the crowd from the moment they walked onto the stage; the skills of Cameron Bruce on keys, Nick Stewart on guitars, Ken Folan on bass and Christian McBride on drums complementing Pinky’s showmanship and incredible voice.