Revolver on Chapel St means different things to different people. Colonel Tan’s Thai menu attracts a trendy, mid-week crowd, keen on curries, retro decor and funky tracks from days gone by. Original Banksys dot the walls, dating back to when only ‘cool people’ knew of the antagonist and his emerging form of graffiti. Shepard Fairey’s iconic Obey images paste the hallways to where The Living End once shot their video clip for Prisoner of Society and almost everyone is aware of the munters who stumble down the stairs to greet daylight each and every weekend.
For now the Revolver crew are intent on igniting some rock into the mix with a relaunch of Lost & Found. Tonight, they’ve enlisted The Latonas, Cavalcade, Damn Terran and punk-rockers Dangerous! It’s a tough task to build a Wednesday night crowd, let alone coax them away from their chicken curry, comfy couches and chilled out beats into a caged front band room.
Cavalcade are have spirited and aggressive approach, think Future Of The Left. Bass heavy with two complementing, fast-paced guitars and impeccable, energised drumming. The music is tight with a no holds barred approach. The songs are forceful and precise and manage to hold the crowd’s attention. Vocally, however, the lyrics are indecipherable which begs the question, why write, produce or perform material with indistinguishable lyrics? One wouldn’t tolerate a set with muffled drums, so why allow such clouded vocals? Shout and scream all you want but surely we’d engage more if we could work out what the hell you were shouting about. We may even agree with you. Lozenge anyone?
Damn Terran are well-oiled and tonight won over the dedicated few. Lachlan Ewbank leads with guitar and vocals, brother Leigh handles drums while Ali Edmonds adds bass and vocals. You might not win friends with salad but you’ll always win fans with a female bass player! Most importantly, they gel extremely well and the music is head-turning. Wrong Things with its cool melody and chugging riffs throughout, Lust with some fast drumming; female backing vocals suited perfectly. Current single Rebels utilises Edmonds’ vocals further, musically it counteracts a frantic intro with a psychedelic instrumental jam before the floor toms ignite into a frenzy. There are elements of Silversun Pickups, Screamfeeder and even Bud.
It’ll be the bands that benefit initially from the relaunch of Lost & Found, the test is to attract diverse acts of notable quality to benefit the rest of us.
BY JOHN DONALDSON
Loved: The idea of bringing more rock south side.
Hated: A dozen unframed drawings and photos clipped to a back wall constituting an ‘exhibition’? Hardly.
Drank: Malcolm Blights (lights).
