Review - Evermore @ The Sandringham Hotel, Newtown,
09Aug95
Evermore’s recently released self-titled CD was “launched” in Sydney at Macquarie University (solo at lunch time on 07Aug) and at the Sando tonight supporting Disaster Dora. Entering ye olde Sando for the first time would always be a daunting experience, I’d imagine: the large centre bar-area with the small stage almost on top of it; the Simpsons blaring from the TV at the other end and a very cosmopolitan crowd that one doesn’t quite know how to take or describe. But familiar and friendly faces soon beckoned and after a quick sound-check (they get one of those here!?) the first band was on.
The opener for Evermore was the EP’s instrumental
closer The Long Grind which was
extended for the occasion. The band is quite adept at transferring the recorded
sound complete with guitar washes onto the stage, and they carried this
effortlessly through all the songs from the EP (for some reason Fool You Are wasn’t in the set tonight –
the lyrics to that song have been described as a re-enactment of the old Queen song Death on Two Legs as they set out to bad someone they know, or
wouldn’t want to know?!...)
Other songs tonight included a couple of their own oldies and new ones that either didn’t make the final cut or are more recent than the EP. Stand outs included Winter Years and Hardman – the former only because it sounds like the old Streets of Our Town song and the latter like a mid-career Cure tune.
The band tend not to be very dynamic on stage, concentrating more on getting everything 110% in the sound department while leaving the action to singer Jason Matthews. In saying that, though, Steve Young’s guitar effects are quite attention-grabbing in themselves with their complexity and quantity (how many pedals are there, Steve!?); so too is Alexandra Transfield’s Attractions/Sting influenced bass-playing. And in the engine room, Sam (Pierre Pierre) Andrews’s drumming is jazz and rock influenced, both genres showing out through the set.
Evermore enjoy what they do, which is rare nowadays, and this
enjoyment transfixed the not-too-small Sando crowd, who thoroughly enjoyed the evening that I saw.
Unfortunately Disaster
Dora will have to wait another day for their review, but Evermore
are already planning a more comprehensive tour toward the end of the year and,
based on the reaction here tonight and reports from the Uni they should be
able to draw a few more heads when next they pack up the cardboard box and head
south