Review – The Trophy Wives + Adam Anderson & Matt Holloway
@ The Monkey Bar, Cronulla, 28Nov00

Those not familiar with The Shire’s most famous beachside suburb might find it difficult locating this relatively new and far-from low-profile venue. The posters plastered all over the place say that you can expect some big, not-so-big and once-big acts to perform here in the coming weeks, so it is as big a surprise to see a room with such a line-up supporting new artists as those on tonight’s stage.

The early-comers squeezed their way between that space closest to the bar for the first act, Adam and Matt (I keep going to write Wil, because of the name Anderson and its proximity to the name Adam). Adam’s preference was a 6-string acoustic while Matt’s was the Fender Strat and their muse was quite slow, almost melancholy. There was quite possibly some deep-and-meaningful, thought provoking and/or inspiring lyrics throughout their set but due to my proximity to the stage and the rather poor mixing effort we missed most of them, except when the better songs came out at the end of the set.

Stylistically, Adam and Matt broached Country and Western (complete with inaudible harp), Disco (difficult with only two guitars and sounding more Steve Miller than Disco) and Billy Bragg-styled folk (without the accent or Socialist attitude). The aforementioned ‘best songs’ included: their “imaginary theme song” as Adam explained “…before there was Shaft, there was Sanchez”; Craig Drinks Beer (All Day Long) (the crowd favourite Bloke long before Chris Franklin); and Lou Reed singing Pointer SistersNeutron Dance as the closer. Overall, there could/should be a band behind these two, filling in the oh-so-obvious gaps, some more audience acknowledgement from Matt and a wee bit more tempo: A good basis on which to build a little further. ««¾

You will find samples of Glen Colley’s article-writing prowess in the Your Work part of this site, but from earlier samples of his work (a punk venture at the Agincourt basement a few years back) and exposure to his very quick sense of humour I had no idea what to expect from this, the third gig for The Trophy Wives. Band press had suggested Radiohead, Crowded House, Massive Attack and Portishead influences on the new style so a happy up-beat night was not on the cards. And comments like “we’ve gone all professional… with a tuner” hinted at a reprise of that underground gig. But something in our many conversations always suggested something special; something to look forward to; a band that would make something big. So when I walked in on a sound-check, thinking I was fashionably late (as usual) all those misgivings and pre-judgements made one wonder if this was a wasted trip.

What followed Adam and Matt’s set was in fact the exact opposite of what those two and the sound-check promised. Starting out with Elevator Musak, a alterna-jazzy tilt at Bert Kaemfert/Burt Bacharach, The Trophy Wives delivered quite the polished and poppy set of 8. The band comprises Glen and Jane trading front-person roles with the latter occasionally taking up trumpet; Kate on keys, violin and backing vocals, Phil out back and Luke down low. The first set had all the success and stylings of Something Urban and I actually found myself during some of the set at Harbourside for that band’s CD launch. Living Dead was the highlight of eight songs that traversed Thunderclap Newman Something In The Air, Radiohead No Surprises, Paul & Barry Ryan’s late 1968 epic Eloise, Tori Amos and Louie Louie with Hammond organ to close. Kudos for the multi-instrumentality and instrumentation, but a little more liveliness and/or imagination (was it nerves?) in the rhythm section promise great things for this quintet!

The second set, however, was not as bright and cheerful. The engineer (on his first night) got things together by this time but musically it was more toward the slower end of the aforementioned influences. The choreographer of this set did well: only Glen and Phil took the stage for the first three songs, with styles that included nouveau Brit Pop and Paul Kelly/Dave Beniuk. Knot, the best song of this set, appeared during this stage of the show. Luke joined in for the moving Wrist Beneath Your Nails (an almost-Losing My Religion) while Jane returned for the rock track Batten Down The Hatches. Fumbling brought back the lower-tempo for the rest of the set, except for No Van Gogh, the bright and happy Rembrandts Closer To Free closer with Kate back on vocals for that and the penultimate.

I didn’t leave this second set with the same feelings as from the first but there is still something in a band that retains its sizeable Tuesday audience the way they did tonight. With some more up-temp tunes (there’s the gauntlet Mr Colley!) and some more spit and polish around the edges, The Trophy Wives certainly have that certain-something that will take them that next step. Only a «««¼ performance tonight but there’s plenty more to come!

PG (Jacky) Gleeson

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