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 Photo: Kylie Keene
Brisbane Powerhouse - Thursday July 19 It’s from a group of his friends that Mick Harvey has selected to curate four nights of live music in the Powerhouse’s airy but warm Turbine Platform as part of the Queensland Music Festival, with a very matey feel enveloping the performances. Best known for his work alongside Nick Cave in The Bad Seeds (and earlier), some of Harvey’s friends are peers whose careers also stretch back decades into the Australian underground (Dave Graney, Clare Moore, fellow Bad Seeds), while others are younger contemporaries with sympathetic tastes (Melbourne independent instrumentalists Silver Ray). Regardless, an almost subconscious theme of music of the ‘60s seems to abound, whether in the shape of old-time country, cinematic jazz, or avant-pop. The second and fourth nights of the program are examined here.
Supports each night feature members of other bands on the bill performing solo. The third member of Graney and Moore’s trio, Stu Thomas opens Thursday with a set of old Americana country, from a time when ‘if the sun and scorpions didn’t get you, a bullet would’. Death, old testament God and dark romantic obsession are referenced so often that songs about people outside the law by Johnny Cash and Peggy Lee are almost an uplift in tone. Using his guitar alternately for both melody and rhythm, Thomas most notably uses space in his songs, further fleshing out the lonely feeling of an open plain where a note can carry for miles. Cam Butler of Silver Ray provides two vastly different support slots. Thursday’s begins with just Butler and his guitar, but via a self-operated sampler, he builds a band behind him, recording and adding sounds at the press of a pedal. The effect is relatively hypnotic, falling into a widening 20-minute groove that uses harmonica, feedback, tapping his guitar and even sliding his finger up the strings to experiment with new noises. His second instrumental support is backed by The Shadows Of Love Orchestra, whose use of double bass, violin and cello as well as drums and Butler’s guitar on largely unnamed tracks ranges from the echoing mournful to the rollicking manic. Also, Butler’s handlebar moustache is captivating. Mick Harvey & Friends Brisbane Powerhouse - Sat July 21 Morphosa Harmonia has only been performed publicly twice before, so little is known of the eight-piece led by the composer and Bad Seeds drummer Thomas Wydler. Comprising drums, strings, guitars, keys, a laptop and a vibraphone staffed by Harvey, Moore and the festival’s other participants, dirty bar grooves, gradually structuring atmospherics, and urgent detective noir soundtracks are included in the fifteen lyric-free songs. However, the standout performance is from a masked Graney, whose role from a stool up the back of stage, is to introduce each song with a spontaneously lurid story, and sit in the spotlight while it’s played, adding a ridiculous element to a fantastic show. Thirty years of collaborating with eccentric showmen still hasn’t taught Mick Harvey how to charm or hold a crowd’s attention, as he completes the fourth night out front of his band, featuring Bad Seeds Wydler and James Johnston, and double bassist Rosie Westbrook. As Harvey points the band through tight covers of Lee Hazelwood, Chris Bailey, Cave and a couple of his own, it becomes apparent that they specialise in subtle tenderness or crashing attacks, with little between. Harvey’s voice is stronger than on last year’s tour, but his apologetic lack of stage presence distracts to the point that when he thanks the crowd for their applause, it feels like he means for staying around. Finishing with a couple of his favourite Serge Gainsbourg tracks, it’s apparent that as a musician, producer, writer, collaborator and singer, Harvey has rightly earned a wonderful reputation, but in terms of live performance his nervous banter can upset a solid if not brilliant night. SIMON TOPPER
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