The Audreys @ The CornerHotel, Melbourne(23/11/06)

Sun 10th Dec, 2006 in Music Reviews

The energy drifting through the crowd at The Corner Hotel was an anticipated elation even before the opening act. It was clear that punters were there to witness the buzz of these homegrown sensations that recently won an ARIA award for best blues & roots album with Between last Night and Us.

Liam Gerner roused the crowd this evening with some stellar acoustic singer songster tunes that honestly sounded so authentic that I thought I was listening to Van Morrison in his heyday, or a young John Cougar Mellencamp. Liam looks like he belongs in the late 60s too, with cowboy boots (one tucked over his jeans, maybe on purpose?), scruffy attire and an image that Jerry Lee Lewis and Art Garfunkel would have been hip with. Liam is a high-spirited young man with a quirky sense of humor and received a warm applause.

The Audreys graced the stage almost simultaneously, followed by its star Taasha Coates, looking classy and comfortable. The band opened with ‘Monster’ setting a dramatic mood, but then seized the crowd with ‘Banjo & Violin’ exhibiting their love for 1930’s Kentucky bluegrass. On hearing this number I wouldn’t be surprised if “Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys” was sitting firmly in their music collection. Especially with Tristan Goodall’s steel guitar and banjo executions. The band were in fine form, and although this was my first experience seeing them live, I was transfixed for the majority of their performance, squeezed in between the sea of bodies in a humid full house.

Radio favorites began rolling forth; ‘You & Steve McQueen’ delighted fans, as with ‘Pale Dress’ and ‘Oh Honey’, with a jubilant Taasha moving in almost choreographed grace and love for her band, pausing between songs to introduce them “Did you meet all my sexy boys in my band”? It was a real show, as the crowd was treated to impressive solo performances by Toby Lang on drums, Mikey G playing some mean colonial fiddle, Tristan Goodall’s effortless banjo pluckings and an outstanding bass solo from Lyndon Gray.

As the evening curtains began to draw Miss Coates presented us with her tiny lady guitar (as she called it) and we were treated to an encore of Dolly Parton’s ‘Someday I’ll get over you’, which was a superb farewell. Taasha’s singing dazzled the Corner with a first-class alluring charm that usually comes with years of performance. The Audreys deserve the reputation they’re developing, and much of that has to do with their young slick look and well crafted songs, and the fact that they are actually highly entertaining.

I’d like to see The Audreys develop a little disrepair over the years. Maybe they need to live in an old farmhouse together and live on a diet of porridge and whiskey, because they seem just a little too clean cut or fresh. As for the whole country/bluegrass/roots tag, types of music brought with the people who began migrating to America in the early 1600s are considered to be roots music, but it’s nice to distance bands like The Audreys from a mainstream ‘pop’ market.