Grand Atlantic Album Launch @The Hopetoun

Tue 26th Jun, 2007 in Gig Reviews

I headed to the infamous Surry Hills haunt, the Hopetoun, early on this chilly Friday night to see a band I’d never heard of until now (what an awesome name!) called Hand Me My Jetpack. These guys deliver energetic foot stamping rock. The bassist and guitarist sharing vocal duties in a head on collision of catchy tunes. Songs like Cars run on Science were a refreshing change from the boy meets girl/boy falls in love with girl/boy loses girl lyrics bands like this seem to fall into. These guys are headed for greatness. Well worth keeping an eye out for.

Next to the stage, four piece Brisbane band Grand Atlantic took the opportunity to launch their new album This is Grand Atlantic. This band is about melodic indie inspired tunes with a classic rock and roll attitude. The singer seamlessly drifted between melancholy laid back numbers and the more upbeat, rocken’ tunes. The energy of the crowd was great to be a part of, and even inspired some audience participation, stadium hand clapping action making us feel like we were at the Hordern as opposed to the Hopetoun. The variety of their songs demanded attention at every turning point until they departed with Smoke and Mirrors to end their set.

Main support band **Ooh La L*a* hit the stage and took me by surprise as they pumped the walls with bass and the room with soul. If there’s nothing you like better than having a boogie to some live funky music, get along to see this band. They really put on a show.

Headlining the evening were The Saturns. A strong stage presence was a good follow up to the showmanship of Ooh La La. The Hopetoun was heating up at this point as The Saturns take a phsycobilly twist to straight up, no frills Rock and Roll. The audience lapped it up, and the band reveled in being on stage.

I have to remember to get down to the Hopetoun more often; this was a great gig in a wonderfully intimate venue. It really is awesome to have a venue that works so hard to support the local indie music scene.