22 July 2014

Those teen wonders from County Cavan paid their first visit to Melbourne, Australia and played a storming set. Great Gigs was there to capture it all…

They say every storm cloud has a silver lining… and last night proved the rule… after the devastating news that London Grammar had cancelled their Australian Tour due to sickness with less than 24 hours notice, I suddenly remembered I had tickets to see The Strypes at the Northcote Social Club…

This was to be The Strypes FIRST EVER gig on Australian soil and they were obviously very keen to impress… and impress they did. The setlist was a music lover’s wet dream… absolutely to die for… employing a festival warmup strategy, they came out swinging from the get-go, opening the night’s proceedings with their blitzkrieg belter “What a Shame” and then without skipping a beat played straight into a frenetic all-you-can-eat smorgasbord of absolute jaw-droppers: song after song after song… with one of my all-time favourite tracks, Vince Taylor’s ‘Brand New Cadillac’ up at number 3… I was totally gobsmacked at the musicianship and the depth of musical awareness of these boys…

As well as their own material, we were treated to their take on songs by:

Bo Diddley (‘You Can’t Judge a Book by the Cover’ & ‘I Can Tell’)

The Specials (‘Concrete Jungle’)

Jessie Hill (‘Ooh Poo Pah Doo’)

Nick Lowe (‘Heart of the City’)

Hambone Willie Newbern (‘Rollin’ and Tumblin’)

Slim Harpo (‘Got Love If You Want It’)

Howlin Wolf (‘Smokestack Lightning’)

The Ramones (‘Rockaway Beach’)

and the Kingsmen (‘Louie Louie’)

Woven in between these classics were tracks from their stonking debut… The boys traded instruments often: guitars, bass, harmonica and vocal duties, and genuinely relished every opportunity to showcase their chops… one of my favourite moments was seeing the bassist switch centerstage to harp and then skillfully employ a signature ‘Dr Feelgood/Wilko Johnson’ ‘deadpan/frenzy/deadpan/frenzy’ schtick with his harp solos… In fact, thinking about it now, so much of the show was a blend of Dr. Feelgood and the Stones…If their trajectory continues it’s meteoric rise, these boys certainly have a HUGE future…

Then, just when I thought it seriously couldn’t get any better… it was upstairs to meet the lads after the show… They kindly scribbled on my setlist and added their instrument of choice as a doodle next to their names… What a brilliant night. Thankyou boys. Knock ’em dead at Splendour.