With an unusual twist to the night, Mr Brown, learning from their
recent PMC outing, were on next. All of
these guys know how to work the crowd, from Rusty's chats between
songs and mid-song jokes, to Jon's dancing and rock star stance,
to Venom's frenetic drumming. The crowd was slow to build -
probably due to the early start, and was far-from capacity by the finalè:
something to do with being in front of the sound desk? The sound for the night
improved with the set but there were problems, while the lighting was
only-marginally better than that for Muzzy. The hour long set pumped from go to whoa, with stand out songs
including the singles Liar Liar from earlier this year, Soap and Inside
Out from their "Gooda" EP, as well as Silverspoon
(complete with bass solo), Tonight, Women, Dazed and 60.
These guys are shit-hot! They have to be The Next Big 3pc Thing!! Too bad about
the fold-back set backs.
Universe features Steve (Noiseworks) Balbi
and a couple of friends, playing the songs they feel like playing, with little
to no accompaniment whatsoever. Steve opened with a
pained-and-emotive vocal track in the style of Prince
which left only his enthusiastic supporters/friends in the room - which is a
shame, actually, because through the remainder of the set the three of them
explored some interesting sounds, including almost-pop/almost-country, a
rockier version of Steve's better-known style, David (Major
Tom) Bowie,
Lou Reed, and a Beatles/Noiseworks mix.
While the opening song kicked out the "punters" so the stayers could
enjoy the rest of the night, including the exceptional light-show, the set was
not quite what I expected, but admittedly I wasn't sure what to expect. It
definitely was not the Hopetoun
acoustic/arty Goodbar
jam that we we given at the end of an otherwise loud-rock Annandale eve!