Ground Components, CapitalCity, The Dee Dee Dums @Artrage Bakery, Perth(12/5/2007)

Mon 14th May, 2007 in Gig Reviews

Opening act The Dee Dee Dums set the tone for the evening, with their entertaining, if silly, stage antics. While it is heartening to hear some original psychedelic rock at a live show, the idea of being an original band is to take your influences and shape them into something new. Technically competent, the actual performance cannot be faulted – the songs suited Kevin’s vocal skill, the band has clearly worked hard to be comfortable performing a tight set, Guitar and drums merging neatly to create a groovy, but alas, not new sound. At any point they might have been covering Cream or Zeppelin, The Doors or, God forbid, Wolfmother. The world is not yet ready for a Wolfmother cover band, and the position of Band-Who-Sounds-Like Other-Great-Old-Bands has been filled, thanks for asking.

Luckily, The Dee Dee Dums’ stage presence and delivery were entertaining, the members nice to look at and the sound infectiously danceable, so that the initially polite audience was swayed by the end of the set and applauded enthusiastically. Hopefully Kevin, Sam and Dom will take their influences and invest them with their own spin to create a new sound that will get them noticed and take them to the next level.

The second support act, Capital City, drew a larger crowd, probably only due to the later timeslot. They have taken the very distinctive sound of The Velvet Underground, and smeared it with that ‘50s rock and roll flavour that is disturbingly overdone by an increasing number of new bands. Once again, the actual performance and crowd interaction was the only saving grace for Capital City, or, as one onlooker commented, – œTheir guitarist was pretty cute’. Cuteness notwithstanding, they soon lost a large proportion of their initial audience to the bar and the fun red lights in the – œbeer garden’ where everyone looked strangely glamorous and beautiful.

The crowd outside grew as fans began to arrive in time to see Ground Components, the atmosphere very chilled for a Saturday night. But once the main act began to play, the band’s enthusiasm caught the crowd who packed themselves inside to watch. Though Ground Components were severely let down by the sound mixing, they didn’t show any annoyance, making jokes about taking advantage of having someone to adjust their mix for them, and increasing the energy of their performance to make up for any lack in the mix.

With two shows left of their Hands in the Air tour, the boys looked as though they had been having the time of their lives. Appreciative and respectful of their audience, the novelty of a large crowd hasn’t worn off, and vocalist Joe McGuigan drew the band as well as the crowd, including one rabid fan, along in his enthusiastic wake. Said rabid fan was even allowed to sing into the microphone and have a little dance on the stage without drawing too much concern from band members, despite the very little dancing space and cables to trip on.

It is not often that a band can get away with a part of their song sounding exactly like that of another band, but On Your Living Room Floor manages to be its own song despite sounding like the organ has been sampled directly from Radiohead’s Talk Show Host. Fortunately for the band, Radiohead wrote a great song. The downside, from a marketing point of view, is that after hearing On Your Living Room Floor, it is Talk Show Host that remains stuck in your head.

McGuigan’s brother Simon worked hard on the drums, ensuring there was no break between songs, beginning the next song and beating away patiently until the others were ready to begin. Towards the end of the set, it was clear that he had no thought in his head except; keep-beat-going… almost there… two songs left… one song left… must not stop… His performance was flawless and he clearly gave it his all.

The rest of the band was evidently having a ball, and the few times bassist Indra Adams got behind the microphone to sing, his arresting voice gave the music a new dimension. His skills will hopefully be further explored in future offerings from the band. It is particularly enjoyable to watch a band who loves what they do, and do it unpretentiously well.