The Vasco Era is back. “I don’t need a warning/ Do you?”
Side A: Yelling (loud). Side B: Crying (soft). Frontman Sid O’Neil zigzags between these modes, sometimes within a single song, throughout the Surf Coast band’s fourth album.
From hating on cross stitch (“It’s fuckin’ kitsch”) and bemoaning the price of organic oranges (“Nine bucks!”) – It Wasn’t Supposed To Be Like This suddenly ticks over to witching hour at Earthcore; perfect for a barefoot stomp sesh.
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The flat-out bonkers In Another Place, with its tribal drumming and mantra-like singing, would fittingly soundtrack one of Doctor Who’s parallel universes.
The Vasco Era tends to poke away at tolerance thresholds, which is a thrilling prospect live. Silver Bird, which opens Side B, screeches in like a rogue guitar being wrestled into submission. Then just barely-strummed guitar cradles O’Neil’s fragile falsetto – talk about a vibe shift!
You Were Going To Look, with its sighing strings and floaty atmosphere, features O’Neil in full Jeff Buckley mode, nailing that quivering vibrato.
Although he sometimes sings like a broken choirboy, O’Neil’s yowls are among the most spine-tingling you’ll ever hear. Now picture him flinging himself around the stage, ricocheting off amps.
A wee bit into the closing All This Time I’ve Been Waiting, a maelstrom of instrumentation invades, withdraws, returns and so on. At their heaviest, The Vasco Era can be dense and mighty as Sabbath. But I Don’t Mind’s delicate moments are equally as strong, if not more memorable.
How had we never before realised The Vasco Era is a natural fit for symphony orchestra-enhanced shows?
