Live Review – Lower Plenty, Melbourne 2012

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] Lower Plenty
w/Bitch Prefect, Mad Nanna
The Empress
Saturday, May 19

The Empress is a suitable venue for tonight's show. Tucked away in one of the quieter corners of Fitzroy it's a place that tends to book bands of the quieter and sleepier persuasion [ed. and, on the odd occasion, Prince]. Floor sitters. But there's to be no floor sitting tonight. The sold-out launch for Lower Plenty's debut album Hard Rubbish had people standing elbow-to-elbow, nose-to-back-of-head from the beginning of the night.

Mad Nanna play slow. Real slow and real quiet. With a fluid lineup that has changed and evolved tonight is the most steady with Michael Zulicki, Pat O'Brien and Ian Wadley. The trio are almost a caricature of an indie band. In sound, look and performance, they’re probably what Austereo board members picture when they think of the genre. So their folky Mogadon rock may not be for everyone, but tonight is the best I've seen them play. They’re no strangers to the Empress either, having recorded the song 'I've Been Talking' here. With slowly strummed guitar, Zulicki's weary vocals and melodies that peter out, they set the tone nicely for the night.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

Hard Rubbish is a beautifully sad album and tonight Lower Plenty play with a sombre sense of occasion. Al Montfort slurs through 'Work in the Morning'. His lackadaisical delivery perfectly captures the song’s subject: the struggle of the everyday. Sarah Heyward's odd percussion flourishes opens 'Dirty Flowers' before her vocals take over. She has the clearest voice of the three singers. Where Montfort sometimes mumbles and Jensen Tjhung occasionally moans, when Heyward sings “Counting down the hours”, it’s crystal.

The aching 'Strange Beast', with the vocal interplay of Tjhung and Heyward, has everyone nailed. “Loneliness is the biggest killer of them all,” sings Tjhung, and even in a crowded room surround by people you feel desperately alone. 'Nullarbor' is still the band’s best song, and Montfort brings all that dusty heartbreak and lost love on an outback highway to Fitzroy. Heyward's percussion helps things along, but it's Montfort's weary voice and guitar playing that make it what it is. They play the two best tracks off their first cassette tape, 'Round and Round' and 'I Am a Ghost', Tjhung moaning through parts of the latter.

Tonight, the band finally feels like its own entity. They’re Lower Plenty – not simply members of Dick Diver, Deaf Wish or Total Control, but four people up on stage baring their frailties. 'Chelsea Embankment' by Nikki Sudden is a great choice to close out the show. A beautiful, sad and forlorn performance.

by Tim Scott

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