Owl Eyes, Brooke Addamo, warms up with synth-driven, pop; vocals airy and clear. She’s raided the Underbelly Razor wardrobe department and her crowd is staging a sit in. Perhaps this is where Occupy Melbourne has relocated to.
It’s nice music: clean, non-threatening and hardly risky. A talent whose stage movement adds to the expressiveness of her sound. Vocally indistinguishable from many other female leads brandishing the same dreamy woes and it’s her cover of Foster The People’s Pumped Up Kicks that turns heads (and iPhones). Surely disappointing even to Owl Eyes that another’s material sparks the most interest; a strategy that more artists have to rely on.
There’s no real buzz for Oh Mercy, they present Hold Out Your Hand, Blue Lagoon and Let Me Go from 2011’s, ARIA nominated, Great Barrier Grief and pleasantly welcome us all. It’s a cordial greeting to match the music: sweet, soft and warm.
Gow clearly has new music up his sleeve and in his heart and it’s not long before we’re given plenty of it. It’s up-tempo, adventurous and appreciated. Unnamed the first thing to provide attitude and swagger to the set; ‘I sold my soul to the devil and the devil don’t pay’. It was penned in a two week period of ‘self-deprecating, self-loathing and pity’, when ‘Lady Luck’ had nipped out for coffee (according to Gow).
Three things can be garnered from tonight’s performance. Firstly, Gow is a creative songwriter; Keith Street and Stay Please Stay – winners. He displays confidence and courage; an a cappella of David McComb’s The Good Life missed its mark but points for trying. Lastly, he needs a band who are just as willing to ‘let go’. People can sit at home and listen to songs, but they pay to see a show, and hopefully, a fucking good one. Tonight we were simply played songs.
Oh Mercy and Gow are racking up worthy mileage with the likes of Crowded House, Dan Sultan and those on the Finn Bros merry-go-round. Surely there are lessons to be learnt about engaging the crowd. To fire up and let loose just for the encore was just a little too late tonight.
BY JOHN DONALDSON
LOVED: Seeing another De La Salle lad following in the footsteps of Dave Larkin, Pete Satchell and Jason Donovan!
HATED: The lazy sods who sit on the floor when being performed to. Some respect?
DRANK: $8.50 bottles of Bulmers half expecting to find a Golden Ticket in one.
