The Troubadour  Thurs May 11

I’m not sure how it happened, given their apparent ubiquity in local musical circles, but I’ve never seen the Gin Club before. A minute into their set and I’m kicking myself for all the great gigs I’ve missed. Opener Wild Bitch is rollicking truckie-country with balls and howls and…cello? Eight people cram onto the tiny stage, swapping instruments and frontman duties after each song. It’s great entertainment, heightened by the danger that someone could end up with a banjo up their nose (or worse…) at any moment. They remind me of, variously: My Morning Jacket, colonial ballads, long-distance driving, Bob Dylan, bushrangers, joints passed around campfires, sea shanties, and Neil Young. All good things. After six of the eight have had a turn on vocals it seems maybe things are a bit too democratic. But they close with a rowdy version of Drug Flowers, topping off the most enjoyable support set I’ve seen in quite a while.

After which Youth Group are a little disappointing. The set opens with Someone Else’s Dream, and is heavily stacked with new songs. Which is fair enough with a new album on the way, but makes for a lack of momentum – especially coupled with the technical problems the band seem to be having. That’s not to say the new songs aren’t great. They’re a diverse mix, auguring well for the new album: one song has all the joyful tumbling of Bob Dylan’s Like A Rolling Stone, another (Under The Overpass?) has a great funky beat and bassline from somewhere between Blondie’s Heart Of Glass and Eye Of The Tiger. Forever Young is as dreamy as you’d expect, laced with pedal work and vocal effects. Skeleton Jar is a welcome familiar tune but seems far too slow - it’s as if Toby Allen and co don’t want us to dance. Things finally click with closing tune Daisy Chains: a melancholy slowie led by distorted slide and Allen’s distinctive, inexplicably emotive voice. Shadowland and See Saw make up a gorgeous encore; if only the band had been so comfortable for the rest of the set.

CLARE FLETCHER

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