Review – Peter
Fenton with David Lane, Jim Elliot & John Willstead
@ The Hopetown
9Feb01
At the end of February 1998 I was to have gone to the Harbourside to review a new Warner Chappell artist. To this day I’ll never know what took me to the Cat & Fiddle but I thoroughly enjoyed the band I saw that night. Tonight I made the same mistake, although I was at least in the same suburb, but came away none too impressed with my organisational skills and what I was put through as a music punter.
Now I know why I don’t like coming out on Friday nights: the line-up tonight inspired beyond standing-room-only and whilst turning up at 10:50 for a 10:30-advertised show was always going to guarantee catching the main act’s whole show, I wasn’t expecting this sort of turn-out for any act on any night here at the Hoey! From my vantage point of almost behind the bad I could only see the singer and guitarist but audibility was improved thanks to the dozens twixt them and me.
So here we all were for a slightly out-of-tune, slightly too-loud mellow set not unlike the lower-key Do moments of a few weeks back. And given the background as to why I was here, I was more than surprised to learn from Matt the barkeep that this was indeed Peter (Crow) Fenton with Jim (The Cruel Sea) Elliot, John (The Go-Betweens) Willstead and David (Lo-Fi High Brow) Lane. Having seen Crow toward the end of their existence I could now see the muse behind this set, but the $7/head punters didn’t seem to mind in the slightest, many of them singing along here and there. Even my foot was tapping after a few tunes. A little more fluidity between songs could have helped the stage-presentation, and so could a tuner or two, with at least half a tone separating the musicians toward the end of my stay.
I suppose I should start making an effort to seek out the music publication outlets in my area so this doesn’t happen again, and also suppose checking the blackboard outside the venue might help! Or, better still, actually writing down the actual details of the releases I get! I only hope I haven’t been blacklisted by the band I was supposed to have caught tonight!