Live Review

My Disco @ Crowbar, 20th November 2015

In my natural way, a tide of petty doubts welled within and around me as I descended Crowbar’s half-lit staircase to the reappropriated den of iniquity, nestled amongst the surrounding strip clubs of Brunswick Street, to watch the silent contenders of the Australian underground, My Disco. It seemed an unlikely choice for the show, which didn’t seem suited to such a partisan venue as this, Brisbane’s self-proclaimed ‘home of the heavy’. I’m not a huge fan of Crowbar, nor any venue that invokes and feeds off such a one-dimensional aesthetic. 

There’s something vaguely facile about it that I probably don’t need to explore here, but I don’t think it adds much to Brisbane’s perpetually fluctuating herd of venues. Of course, who gives two shits what this benign observer thinks; if you know what I’m talking about then you know what I’m talking about and I worried that some of the more recalcitrant fans might be turned off by the space as I walked into a barely populated room ten minutes before Cured Pink were set to start. 

I quietly bathed in my own neurotic uncertainty, slowly sipping a beer with my Dad who’d been conscripted along to a similarly unlikely setting for family bonding. Under the guise of a Multiple Man DJ set, Sean Campion lazily played extended mixes of Australian 80s pop icons I’m Talking. Kate Ceberano’s diva offerings incongruously bounced off the walls of the near-empty venue and, at the very least, fairly earned him a free rider whilst Multiple Man proper rests on temporary hiatus. 

Brisbane’s Cured Pink are to be encountered less often of late, since the departure of founding member Andrew McLennan to Sydney. Usually managing to put on a show worth watching, I was eager not to miss them and was glad to see people who shared my sentiment filter in from upstairs as they began playing. Whether or not you’re really invested in the jumbled assortment of Bedroom-Suck-cum-Tenth-Court and affiliated bands or not, whether you believe there’s something exciting and vibrant happening in that low-key but commendably enduring scene, Cured Pink definitely provide something compelling in their own right and are easily one of my favourite bands to see. The music drifts ambiguously around uncomfortable grooves and rambling vocal incoherency, always a breath away from falling apart but surviving, even flourishing, against all odds. It might have been a Nile Rodgers brainchild if he’d otherwise been born an unemployed, white, twenty-something who woke up drunk and weary in the leering shadows of Australia’s deadbeat political landscape, if you can excuse the vulgar metaphor. Tonight I found them unostentatiously on par, and would recommend sourcing their latest LP As a Four Piece Band through RIP Society. 

Up next came 100%, Brisbane’s dark-synth-opulence three piece moving amongst the same circles as the aforementioned Multiple Man and Cured Pink. Lately 100% have been gaining considerable ground and velocity, and although tonight they were subject to a pretty poor mix, they gave enough reason to keep an eye on their trajectory for any who weren’t already doing so.

Time inexorably arrived for My Disco to set up and take to the stage. I’d only become aware of the band a few years ago, right before the release of 2010’s Little Joy. I’d seen them once before tonight, and never had the experience of watching their progression from one release to another, being happily surprised by the artistic choices behind each, until now. That being said, I found the preliminary listen I’d given their latest work, Severe, to fall short. I was initially confused by the advance release of the single, King Sound, but was certain the rest of the album would provide the context I surely lacked. Severe, however, didn’t give me the fix that I’d built up and come to expect. This was likely premeditated and intentional, but in any case I’m not reviewing the album, I’m reviewing the live show. With the doubts I had about the new record coupled with my reluctance about the choice of venue in mind, I’m so glad to say that after a few minutes, my doubt was sublimated in the sinking dark miasma of the band’s latest iteration. Say what I might about the record on it’s own, on stage the trio flawlessly reach the bar they aim for, and all of a sudden the venue seemed not only unintrusive but even, dare I say, fitting. 

Live, Severe becomes embodied in the painful restraint and brooding austerity that seems so strange as a recording, supported by perfect tones, levels and lighting. The heavy desire of the crowd to break under a wave of tension into a characteristic post-punk dance party was palpable; and yet when it was rewarded in the infrequent moments signalling back to the songs of yore, it was a fleeting pleasure and quickly withdrawn. Like the callous rulers of feudal states, iron-will alone held the crowd in check as they were confronted with the bleak sonic territory of Severe. Although the latest record may never grow on me, and I suspect that perhaps it will, My Disco were well worth checking out for their latest run of live shows. If you missed them and now have no way to make sense of their latest record at least you’ll be able to happily fall back and remain amongst their older material, and if there is to be a next time you can expect it all to have changed once again.

- Ben Stimpson

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