Review – Faker + Winterson @ The Hopetoun, Surry Hills

25Jul00

 

I had all sorts of problems making it to the Houie tonight, details with which I won’t bore you but it included getting rained on. The music experience, as with all visits to this part of town, made it worth the hassle.

 

Thanks to all those hassles, Winterson were the first act I caught of three on the bill. Their task was to build up to that which has become the Faker juggernaut but while it failed to establish the right mood for such a spot, the mood they did create was one of relaxed ambience. With a style that mixed local acts like Midnight Swim and Glance with larger and non-local acts like Jeff Buckley, Sounds like Sunset and Augie March it wasn’t long until some punters/fans took their spot on what is usually the dance floor (although the famous Hopetoun lounge has disappeared) for this dark and sombre presentation of both instrumental and vocal songs which had one colleague ‘mesmerised’ by the power and emotion of the show.

 

With all this going for them, though, I felt that confidence was lacking through much of this set: especially in the separate and varying abilities on each instrument. A stage re-shuffle might help address this, as might a set list and a couple of silent tuners. The effect on the audience speaks for itself, and I’m sure you’ll be seeing the name Winterson around town for a while; maybe even on this site!

 

Faker are described as a meld of all musical things contemporary. Theirs is a traditional Aus-pub line up of two guitars, keys, drums and bass, but untraditionally only two vocalists, and the front-man in this case is generally behind an acoustic axe. They got the 10:30 kick-off started at 10:50 rather shakily (with Nathan recovering very rock-‘n’-roll!) and with a not-so-hot mix of vocals and… well, while there is only a vocal PA, the aim is to be able to hear everyone else, which eventually happened to a degree.

 

What the system/sound guy did to them was more than made up in the band’s energy/synergy, Nathan’s antics and interaction with the crowd (sizeable for a Tuesday too!), and the entirely accessible pop/Brit rock/neo punk stuff not completely at home in this room. The line-up might do with some additional backing vocals (but please don’t add more to the already burgeoning cast!) but overall the band has ‘that certain something’ which will take them places! ««««

 

The night was a success as far as music variety was concerned – if you go out nowadays to check out three bands of the same ilk you generally won’t find too many shows, but there is definitely a depth of talent which can be drawn on to make any music event in this fair city one for a broad selection of punters. If this is the scale of future Faker nights you can be assured that their press: “when they release anything, you should buy it”; relates to their live show – if you see Faker on the bill, go to it!

 

PG (Jacky) Gleeson