Wash Winter's Willies aWay With Whisky
A good lineup of bands for half a day at the Rob Roy. Kinda a silly title but it's all forgiven because I found a new favourite band.
I caught four of the bands on the bill. First up The Tijuana Bibles. Straight down the line country, I'm not a real conossieur but it seemed competent. Next The Handsome Young Strangers, playing 'bush music' they called it. Again, I've got no background here but I liked it, plenty of energy and even a song I knew, Flash Jack From Gundagai (I knew all those year of Macca would come in handy).
Then Floyd Thursby and The Definite Article, a three piece, skewing a little more alt. I'm pretty sure I've seen Floyd before somewhere, he was very good up front, and the band seemed tight and tuneful. They've got another gig coming up at the Cornish Arms on Wednesday night, I was sufficiently impressed to go to that.
Lastly, my new favourite band, who were actually moved up the order because The Maryhillbillys had a late bass player. Lucky, because I had to go to MIFF stuff and would have missed them otherwise.
The band are Khancoban. To paraphrase Jeff Tweedy, 'I fell in love with the drummer'. As a mediocre drummer myself, I'm a huge fan of Glenn Kotche at Wilco. Well, Jemima from Khancoban is also, I presume, as she's adopted his magnificent mallets technique. The band is a five piece; mostly we had Andre up front on guitar, Jen playing keyboards, Andrew on lap steel, Jason on bass and Jemima on the most important instrument.
Their sound reminds me mainly of Wilco, and of Augie March, two bands I love. Andre's high, sweet voice is similar to Glenn from Augie March, as is the feel of Jen's keyboards. On the other hand, Andrew's lap steel, and the rhythm section seem much more Wilco. All up, great.
The bad news is that it doesn't look like they've got another gig for a while. The next one on their site is September 3rd, and that's at the Australian Rationalist Conference. Unfortunately, they just played the Empress; that's right, walking distance from my house. Damn it. Hopefully some more dates appear soon.
I caught four of the bands on the bill. First up The Tijuana Bibles. Straight down the line country, I'm not a real conossieur but it seemed competent. Next The Handsome Young Strangers, playing 'bush music' they called it. Again, I've got no background here but I liked it, plenty of energy and even a song I knew, Flash Jack From Gundagai (I knew all those year of Macca would come in handy).
Then Floyd Thursby and The Definite Article, a three piece, skewing a little more alt. I'm pretty sure I've seen Floyd before somewhere, he was very good up front, and the band seemed tight and tuneful. They've got another gig coming up at the Cornish Arms on Wednesday night, I was sufficiently impressed to go to that.
Lastly, my new favourite band, who were actually moved up the order because The Maryhillbillys had a late bass player. Lucky, because I had to go to MIFF stuff and would have missed them otherwise.
The band are Khancoban. To paraphrase Jeff Tweedy, 'I fell in love with the drummer'. As a mediocre drummer myself, I'm a huge fan of Glenn Kotche at Wilco. Well, Jemima from Khancoban is also, I presume, as she's adopted his magnificent mallets technique. The band is a five piece; mostly we had Andre up front on guitar, Jen playing keyboards, Andrew on lap steel, Jason on bass and Jemima on the most important instrument.
Their sound reminds me mainly of Wilco, and of Augie March, two bands I love. Andre's high, sweet voice is similar to Glenn from Augie March, as is the feel of Jen's keyboards. On the other hand, Andrew's lap steel, and the rhythm section seem much more Wilco. All up, great.
The bad news is that it doesn't look like they've got another gig for a while. The next one on their site is September 3rd, and that's at the Australian Rationalist Conference. Unfortunately, they just played the Empress; that's right, walking distance from my house. Damn it. Hopefully some more dates appear soon.
