Four young Australians who started with an apology. They weren't a jazz or blues band, they didn't play gypsy swing and they didn't sport much in the way of beards. Yet what, at first, sounded like a fairly conventional rock band turned out to be anything but.
Whilst most of their material was self penned they also covered an American country song and a Django Reinhardt jazz standard. There are a wide range of influences in their music and they clearly have eclectic tastes. Fronted by a whirling, shoeless fiddle player, there were strong jazz traits in many of the arrangements, the guitarist delivered some fine solos on both acoustic and electric axes, and the solos from an androgynous bass player, and a drummer who looked like she was having a whale of time, would have drawn applause in many jazz clubs. And kudos to the guitarist for serving up a complex bit of finger picking despite a broken string, impressive stuff.
A largely up tempo set, there was one beautifully melodic slow piece, but even the rockiest of numbers brought surprises, with frequently changing pace and some clever percussion. And how often do you hear a rock song that breaks off for a bit of pizzicato violin? The balance is heavily in favour of instrumental work, with the vocals, shared among the three guys, being more competent than inspired. That's incidental really, for what I left remembering was the energy and imagination of a band that is clearly going to keep developing and improving. I hope they're back in Edinburgh next year.
Here's a clip of them in one of their jazzier moments.
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