Velma Grove, The Winter Suns, The McQueens @ The Evelyn Hotel, Brunswick (19/07/2013)
Launching their debut album, ‘Older’, Velma Grove’s brand of folk-ey, indie, country-ish, pop-ish, bit of this, bit of that, rock and roll graced the stage of the Evelyn Hotel last Friday night, bringing The Winter Suns and The McQueens along for the ride.
Kicking things off for the evening was Fitzroy locals The McQueens, who themselves have made quite a name in the Melbourne music scene, having been finalists in Triple J’s ‘Unearthed High’ competition.
Having been described as “A mix of Foster the People and Coldplay (before they were shit)”, The McQueens handled their time on stage perfectly and played a tight, energetic, confident set, with frontman Noah McQueen switching between guitar and keys to add an extra layer of electronica to the bands indie rock tunes.
Special mention also goes to Noah’s vocals, which had a perfect dirty growl to them while also remaining on key and melodic.
Following The McQueens were The Winter Suns. Now, while the songwriting left a little to be desired, The Winter Suns still played with enough conviction that even when covering songs like Johnny Cash’s ‘Jackson’, the frontman/woman duo of Bek Doery and Aiden Bentley really injected a lot of heart into the music, and for that its difficult to fault them, and even harder not to let them put a smile on your face.
My previous comment about their original songs only goes so far as that The Winter Suns are indeed a good band, their musicianship is proof of that, but at some points I found it hard to distinguish one song from the other.
There was some lovely vocal melodies, but there were also plenty of fairly bland ‘ooh-ing’s and ‘ahhing’s that didn’t contribute much to the music. That aside though, The Winter Suns proved a perfect introduction to the main event of Velma Grove.
Velma Grove made quick work of feeding off, and to, the positive energy in the room, never letting up for a second and delivering a full play-through of ‘Older’, while also adding on a few bonus songs at the end. Frontman Maxie Roberts proved to be a perfect ringleader for the procession, interacting with the crowd and band in turn to keep the energy high.
The performance itself also provided a good insight into the progression in tone of ‘Older’ itself, with a roaring start that would at times dip down to a more sombre level, only to rise back up again on blaring trumpets and screaming guitar solos courtesy of guitarist Samuel Humphrey.
All in all Velma Grove put on a fantastic show, a true celebration of a fantastic collaborative achievement. It says good things for their future that not only can the group write wonderful music, but that they can also perform it with the amount of energy and conviction that it warrants.
Nick Kennedy
Kicking things off for the evening was Fitzroy locals The McQueens, who themselves have made quite a name in the Melbourne music scene, having been finalists in Triple J’s ‘Unearthed High’ competition.
Having been described as “A mix of Foster the People and Coldplay (before they were shit)”, The McQueens handled their time on stage perfectly and played a tight, energetic, confident set, with frontman Noah McQueen switching between guitar and keys to add an extra layer of electronica to the bands indie rock tunes.
Special mention also goes to Noah’s vocals, which had a perfect dirty growl to them while also remaining on key and melodic.
Following The McQueens were The Winter Suns. Now, while the songwriting left a little to be desired, The Winter Suns still played with enough conviction that even when covering songs like Johnny Cash’s ‘Jackson’, the frontman/woman duo of Bek Doery and Aiden Bentley really injected a lot of heart into the music, and for that its difficult to fault them, and even harder not to let them put a smile on your face.
My previous comment about their original songs only goes so far as that The Winter Suns are indeed a good band, their musicianship is proof of that, but at some points I found it hard to distinguish one song from the other.
There was some lovely vocal melodies, but there were also plenty of fairly bland ‘ooh-ing’s and ‘ahhing’s that didn’t contribute much to the music. That aside though, The Winter Suns proved a perfect introduction to the main event of Velma Grove.
Velma Grove made quick work of feeding off, and to, the positive energy in the room, never letting up for a second and delivering a full play-through of ‘Older’, while also adding on a few bonus songs at the end. Frontman Maxie Roberts proved to be a perfect ringleader for the procession, interacting with the crowd and band in turn to keep the energy high.
The performance itself also provided a good insight into the progression in tone of ‘Older’ itself, with a roaring start that would at times dip down to a more sombre level, only to rise back up again on blaring trumpets and screaming guitar solos courtesy of guitarist Samuel Humphrey.
All in all Velma Grove put on a fantastic show, a true celebration of a fantastic collaborative achievement. It says good things for their future that not only can the group write wonderful music, but that they can also perform it with the amount of energy and conviction that it warrants.
Nick Kennedy