Features
Report: Dig It Up! 2013, Sydney
By Aaron Curran
AARON CURRAN soaked up rock, punk, garage and power-pop bands spanning five decades last Sunday, during Hoodoo Gurus’ second Dig It Up!. Photos by JASMIN LIPSCOMB.
[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] There’s a genial atmosphere outside the Enmore Theatre, as the queue builds in the early afternoon sunshine. Faces vaguely familiar from decades spent in dark noisy rooms look different in broad daylight, but recognition dawns somewhere between the wrapping of wristbands and the first drink of the day, and good conversation follows effortlessly.
It seems like the easygoing nature of last year’s inaugural Dig It Up! has made a welcome return for 2013; the curators of this “invitational” festival, Hoodoo Gurus, seemingly have a no-dickheads policy for both the acts they’ve chosen and the crowds that join them.
Wollongong’s own Tumbleweed kick off proceedings with their unpretentious fuzz-metal-boogie. It’s reassuring to see so much long hair still in evidence onstage and that singer Richie Lewis’s flares still fit, even if the many-headed, sweaty beast that was a ’Weed moshpit of yore has been replaced by a more sedate bunch. Still, audience numbers build as the band plays favourites like ‘Carousel’ and ‘Stoned’, and energy levels noticeably rise when some bright spark finally turns off the house lights during ‘Nothin’ to do with the Weather’, allowing the crowd to fool themselves that it’s not stupid-early-o’clock. A thrashing ‘Daddy Long Legs’ brings the set to a decibel-heavy close.
Up the road at the Sly Fox, Canberra’s The Fighting League bash out a familiar brand of scrappy shirtless punk that – metaphorically at least – sticks two fingers up at all the vintage oldster shit on display today. Their music is entertaining, if not particularly original, until they play a song that stands out markedly from the rest: it’s an almost highland-fling-style pop melody with a martial drum beat and is catchy as the clap. A few more tracks like that and we might be hearing a load more from this lot.
Dave Faulkner said that the Peter Case Band may be the surprise hit of Dig It Up! 2013 and he definitely had a point. Wearing dark shades and a fedora, the bearded Case’s look suggests we’re going to hear Costello/Waits-style grizzled roots rock. But, except for a stab at Dylan’s ‘Pledging My Time’, that’s belied by his soaring, surprisingly youthful voice and a setlist of classic power-pop effortlessly played by his crack young band. ‘Paper Dolls’ and ‘When You Find Out’ by Case’s early outfit The Nerves are added to Plimsouls’ material like ‘A Million Miles Away’ and ‘A Great Big World’ and thumping covers like ‘Women’ by The Easybeats and The Creation’s ‘Making Time’, with only a few tuning delays to slow the momentum.
[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]
The loss of Notes as a medium-capacity venue has hit the Sydney leg of Dig It Up! fairly hard. Aside from the Enmore, the other venues are all of the intimate kind and run into congestion problems throughout the day. The Sly Fox is overflowing for The Frowning Clouds, which is disappointing for the hundred or so still trying to get inside (this writer among them), but the ’60s-style garage rock leaking out the door sounds mighty fine nonetheless and it clearly going down well with all present.
When Lime Spiders first started up in the early ’80s, their setlists were dominated by covers of the same kind of Nuggets-era ’60s bands that inspire The Frowning Clouds, but somewhere along the way the Spiders took a more hard rock/metal-influenced path instead. Both sides are present in what they play today and they make somewhat uneasy bedfellows: garage rock stormers like ‘Out of Control’, the timeless ‘Slave Girl’ and great covers like The Litter’s ‘Action Woman’ and Wimple Winch’s ‘Save My Soul’ are marred by metal-style instrumentation, while new tracks like ‘The Dead Boys’ fail to ignite despite the sincerity of Mick Blood’s rasping delivery.
The Stems have hit the comeback trail a few times before but never have they sounded this powerful. While it’s initially disappointing to see that co-frontman Richard Lane and his trusty keyboard haven’t joined his bandmates in this incarnation, even the most nostalgic Stems fan would have to admit that replacement Ash Naylor’s guitar playing is a potent addition to the band’s sound. Naylor and bandleader Dom Mariani’s dueling interplay is revelatory during ‘Mr Misery’ and ‘Move Me’, while drummer Dave Shaw and silver-haired bassist Julian Matthews also acquit themselves with vibrant aplomb.
Debut single ‘Make You Mine’s origins are revealed when Mariani adds ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’ to the medley, while yet another Them single, ‘I Can Only Give You Everything’, is melded with the band’s own ‘Sad Girl’. The four least-liked words at an event like Dig It Up! are “Here’s a new song” so it’s pleasing to report that recent material like ‘Hellbound’ holds its own against anything in The Stems’ songbook. More live shows please, Dom and co.
[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]
Another highlight of the festival awaits across Enmore Road, with Kim Salmon & Leanne Cowie slamming through a set of (mostly) Scientists materials to a bursting Sly Fox. The focus is indelibly on the music, with not a lot of banter to spare. Early tracks like ‘Teenage Dreamer’, ‘Frantic Romantic’ and ‘Set it on Fire’ sit comfortably alongside newer stuff like ‘Pearls Before Swine’. But it’s the propulsive rhythms and coruscating guitar of ‘Swampland’ and ‘We Had Love’ that really shows what this duo can do, with Cowie’s primal drumming perfectly complementing Salmon’s intense delivery.
Back at the Enmore, Buzzcocks hit the stage with all cylinders firing, which is some feat for a band that’s been together for almost 40 years. Guitarists and co-founders Steve Diggle and Pete Shelley share the vocal spot, with Diggle looking like Paul Weller’s younger, cheekier brother – all polka dot shirt, windmill arms and cocksure strut – while the diminutive Shelley, with his trademark squeaky vocals, is a shyer presence. Shelley’s shirt bears the slogan “I want to give myself to you completely.” This they proceed to do, banging out favourites like ‘I Don’t Mind’, ‘Noise Annoys’, ‘Autonomy’, ‘Harmony in My Head’, ‘Ever Fallen in Love’ and ‘What Do I Get?’ in rapid succession – each song barely separated from the rest by a Ramones-like “wahn-too-tree-faww,” with the audience gleefully pogoing and singing along in unison. Definitely a candidate for best party band ever.
[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]
It’s mostly been a day of “alternative comedy” at The Green Room, which explains why Super Wild Horses take the stage somewhat nervously. “We thought we were going to end up playing to an empty room with only a couple of sad clowns,” says Amy Franz. No fear of that: the room is packed and many are turned away, missing the duo’s delicious set of slow-burning, hook-filled, girl-group pop. Hoodoo Gurus’ Brad Shepherd described Franz and bandmate Hayley McKee as “the Manson girls guesting with The Velvets” and that’s apt, but it misses some of the less expected elements: their dual vocals capture some of the sisterly camaraderie of ESG, while the thrumming bass-string-dominated guitar riffs and pattering toms offer a reminder of Joy Division’s more danceable moments. When they turn on their parping Multivox keyboard, it even sounds a bit like Vega and Rev’s Suicide (well, Suicide playing with The Shirelles at least). All the instrument swapping adds an ingenuous touch too.
Back at the Enmore, expectations run high for the Flamin’ Groovies, together in their classic ’70s-era line-up again. Too high it seems, at least initially, with the band slow to come out of the gates. After the pace and energy of the Buzzcocks, some of the Groovies’ rock and roll covers (Larry Williams’ ‘She Said Yeah’, Freddy Cannon’s ‘Tallahassee Lassie’) sound more than a little pedestrian. They’re an incongruous looking bunch too: bassist George Alexander is a Californian skater dude in shorts and baseball cap and guitarist Cyril Jordan has a rake-thin, almost Jarvis Cocker nebbish look, while singer Chris Wilson looks like an English professor with his scarf and glasses.
[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]
The band plough on with their more Byrds-ian repertoire – the wonderful ‘You Tore Me Down’, ‘I Can’t Hide’ and a cover of ‘Feel a Whole Lot Better’ – but the crowd’s applause starts to flag and the band seem aware of it. They rescue the set with a cracking rendition of ‘Slow Death’ and the inevitable, but no less wonderful for it, ‘Shake Some Action’. Perhaps if they’d started with a track like ‘Slow Death’ and focused on more originals than covers, adding in some stuff from earlier and rawer LPs like Flamingo and Teenage Head, they would have got a much warmer reception.
Similarly, Blue Öyster Cult is a band seemingly not to everybody’s tastes, if the number of walkouts tonight is any indication. Watching the audience, there’s a striking split between the band’s devotees who pack the front of the stage and are singing along to every word of ‘Godzilla’, fists pumping the air, and the rest of us, who are watching incredulously with bemused expressions. BOC’s musicianship is impeccable, with immaculate harmonies and note-perfect soloing on tracks from much-loved records like Secret Treaties and Agents of Fortune, but for a Detroit band they’re a damn sight closer to Glenn Frey and The Eagles than they are Iggy and The Stooges.
Hoodoo Gurus are in an estimable position to curate an event like Dig It Up!. Not only do they have excellent taste in music, and great friends in the industry who want to play alongside them, but they’re more than able to deliver a powerhouse headline set. Unlike most groups of an older vintage, the Gurus genuinely seem to have improved with age – Dave Faulkner’s vocals are in admirable shape and Mark Kingsmill hits the drums as hard as ever, while Brad Shepherd is a much better guitarist now than he was and he was never less than excellent.
[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]
They also still seem to have a great time playing together. Tonight’s performance begins with the Mars Needs Guitars LP in full. Highlights include a chiming ‘Bittersweet’; a thunderous ‘Poison Pen’ featuring Shepherd on wailing harmonica (and revealing open shirt); ‘Death Defying’, which Faulkner says is probably his favourite self-written song; and an unstoppable ‘In the Wild’. But it’s their second set of favourites that really steals the show, starting with a version of ‘What’s My Scene?’ that is easily the most powerful rendition of that song I’ve ever seen live (and I’ve seen them play it at least 20 times). Then comes ‘Crackin’ Up’, ‘The Right Time’, a solo version of ‘My Girl’ from Dave, ‘I Was a Kamikaze Pilot’, ‘Miss Freelove’ and more. For a final encore, a couple of the Flamin’ Groovies join the local lads for a memorable assault on ‘Teenage Head’.
Is this the last time round for Dig It Up!? Dave Faulkner was certainly hinting onstage that the band would be up for it again, but the decision is also down to promoter Tim Pittman (a man who was thanked from various stages continually today). Though the peaks of Dig It Up! 2013 never reached quite as high as 2012, it was still a wonderful day of music. It’d be great to see them back for another crack.
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