The Zoo - Sat Feb 21

This is a Saturday evening of essentially indie bands, all with two things in common – 1) They’ve all come from the streets of Brisbane Town, and 2) This reviewer hasn’t seen any of them before. Adventure begins!

My Fiction starts to a sparse crowd, but with a solid guitar-meets-synth chunk, find no problems in filling the cavernous room. On record this is a highly likeable band, and it’s refreshing to hear the appeal cross over live.

The Travelling So & So’s surprise with their trumpet and maraca infused, bass-driven, salsa island party blues, which is a long way of saying The Cat Empire have some enthusiastic style mates. Vocalist Kel’s sweet, wide eyed passion for dancing, and I would guess life, brings a smile.

The Frets take what they do very, very seriously. Whether it’s wearing uniform pork pie hats, lecturing the crowd on their song meanings, crooning Vedder-style over some British India indie-twang, or falling over and screaming at the end of an otherwise enjoyable Fratellis-style bounce-along, they take it very, very seriously. It brings a different kind of smile.

The Grove on the other hand are out for a lark, evidenced by the lead singer’s Wombatish funny face pulling. While their classic leather riffs and updated sweaty Dadrock are passively enjoyable enough, there’s only so many times someone can thank you for coming and call you sexy before you get that creeping feeling of desperation. There’s time to tweak that stage presence, so long as The Grove can also find a more personal sound.

SIMON TOPPER

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