By george
Went to ‘The Write Stuff’ last night. Part of the Adelaide Festival of Arts and a really lame attempt at a humorous event title celebrating the best of Australia’s songwriters. The bill comprised Mark Seymour, george, and The Whitlams.
Being an H&C fan from way back, I was a bit disappointed that Mark Seymour was up first because the first act kind of has the connotation of being ‘the support act’. This also means that because the sound check was done with an empty room, the mix somehow always sounds shocking for the first act when there’s suddenly people everywhere and some levels have to be reset, so it took a few tunes before they sounded half decent. This was also a shame because he kicked off with a mostly acoustic version (well… no drums) of When the River Runs Dry. The other disappointing aspect of it was that well… he was really the veteran of the night and it kind of seemed insulting to put him first and have to warm up the crowd. I think george would have warmed the place up almost instantly because of their appeal with the younger part of the crowd, which was probably most of them. Mark Seymour kind of summed it up when he said after his first song…
If you’re wondering, if you’ve just graduated from high school, who the fuck I am, well my name’s Mark Seymour and I used to be in a band called Hunters and Collectors
…which was kind of him saying ‘I know anyone here under 25 is probably not here to see me’. But he did a great set of nearly all new material, which I sadly admit I am not familiar with. And then he kind of sold out to popularity at the end and did Throw Your Arms Around Mewhich is better I guess than Crowded House or that annoying little Paul McDermott doing it.
Then there was george.
George are amazing. So amazing that I think they’re too amazing. A george song is multi-layered and has many structural elements. They are all such fine musicians and the vocals are brilliant. They change time signatures, they change key mid-song. George are so good that their brilliance commands your complete attention so that you can keep up with just how brilliant they’re being.
And I’m sorry, but I find this exhausting.
Add to this that they’re such good little kids. They’re not rebelling in an angsty, self-loathing, Linkin Park way, they have such a lofty social conscience that you’re not only artistically obliged to listen to what they’re playing, you’re morally obliged to listen to what they’re saying. It’s overwhelming. They’re just such hard work!
I will say that Katie Noonan is probably the best singer of popular music in the world. Now that’s a pretty big call, I know. But she’s so technically brilliant and her voice is so strong, delicate, soaring and lilting all at once. And sure, she does those vocal acrobatics that I normally hate but she doesn’t go at every note at full volume. She knows how to turn it down and do it effectively.
So the Whitlams were just very cool. Tim basically whispered Buy Now, Pay Later and you could pretty much only hear the crowd singing it. Nice. They did all the faves: Royal, Love this City, No Aphrodisiac, Thank You, and they finished with a killer I Will Not Go Quietly but a great highlight was Katie coming back on stage to sing Blow Up the Pokies. Sublime, really.
I recorded the whole gig on MD. It sounds shit. It was just too loud. I even brought the rec level right down but all that bassy noise flying around the place is just too much for my tiny stereo lapel mic.
