The Melbourne garage duo made a welcomed return at Brunswick Music Festival.
A 15-day streak of album launch shows put on by Brunswick Music Festival each night featured Martin Frawley playing songs from his recently released record Undone at 31 and support from local acts. Self-indulgent, but impressive nonetheless, Frawleymade daily reveals of who each night’s support act would be. The last of the shows on Sunday March 18 featured Melbourne’s own Super Wild Horses, a two-piece garage, post punk band who haven’t played a show since 2014. Pretty impressive roundup Frawley. (Paul Kelly alsoplayed that night, but that’s not punk enough to talk about here.)
Amy Franz and Hayley McKee met in 1996 whilst attending an all-girls catholic school and formed the band in 2008, though Super Wild Horsesenjoyed much of their success between 2010-2013 thanks to their 2010 record Fifteen and 2013’s Crosswords.
Both Franz and McKee had featured vocals on ‘Bring Me Down’ from Twerps’self-titled 2011 record and after playing their last gig nearly five years ago, it seemed fitting for Super Wild Horsesto be playing in a vacant shop on Sydney Road with Frawley. The shopfront used for the last two weeks was filled with Frawley’s items; artwork, pictures and even a bed. The atmosphere really made you feel as if you were just attending a house show, which added to the excitement of seeing Super Wild Horses come back for thirty minutes.
Even considering the short amount of time, they still impressed with the variety of style changes within songs and intensity in which they gave each one. Both singing throughout the set, the band started off with McKee on drums and Franz on guitar and roughly half way through the two did the old switcheroo.
Although only a two piece, they really know how to take advantage of what they can do with four hands. Both took to drumming with a maraca on a few songs, creating a fuller sound. Best of all was Franz using one hand to play a bass line on keyboard while her other hand was hitting the snare on ‘Love’ from Fifteen. Although, at times, it was noticeable the two hadn’t played in front of an audience in years, the way in which their squirms turned to short chuckles was endearing. From start to finish the room was filled with excitement and happiness for the pair.
