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Opening the night are locals, Skippy. They are delightful with their short and sweet quirky lounge pop. The intimacy of the venue and the relaxed tone of their music makes you feel like you're intruding on some private garage rehearsal or jam session. Dylan McCormack is superb on guitar and vocals, shining with simplicity and smoothness. My only complaint would be that their songs are too short. This kind of lounge-pop thrives on drawn out solos and jams. It would seem to me that Skippy have all the ingredients, but haven't quite finished mixing the cake.
Having risen out of the ashes of various outfits on the oz music scene, the Titanics combine their talents together to produce some interesting flavours in a sort of "super" group. Minus record companies and dealing exclusively via the internet distributor Chaos Music, the Titanics are doing it their own way and proving that success is possible without big bux. Obviously, it doesn't hurt to have a bit of a long-standing reputation within the industry, built up over years of slogging it out in other bands.
The Healer provides the perfect venue for the Titanics to play. It has all the intimacy of Ric's minus the shoebox scenario and the atmosphere of the Zoo without the sweaty sauna conditions. The Healer provides the perfect combination of comfort and closeness.
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Dave McCormack is a treat on lead vocals. Proof that you can take the boy
out of Brisbane, but you can't take Brisbane out of the boy, Dave belts out
the names of every suburb from here to Ipswich in the middle of a drum
break during "Hey Sweet Ladies". He is casual and comfortable and looks
like he couldn't care less if there were 2 or 2000 people in front of him.
The Titanics play a perfect blend of lounge-pop-rock with just a hint of madness thrown in for good measure. Their set includes many recognisable tunes thanks to high rotation on Triple J, including "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", found on the ad for some sort of ice cream confectionary treat. They even get down and boogie with a version of everyone's favourite Custard hit, "Girls Like That". |
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Ordinarily, there are two main reasons that a band will play covers in
their set (aside from the obvious, if they are a "covers" band). One is to
pay tribute to their idols and heroes of past eras. The other is to take
the piss out of someone who has completely missed the mark.
Tonight I can't figure out which it is with The Titanic's assault on "Dirty Jeans" by Magic Dirt. A song that is fairly radio friendly and inoffensive with an addictive and simple melody just got turned on its arse by these guys. Prone to cheekyness, The Titanic's turn "Dirty Jeans" into a lounge anthem for the next generation of schmoozers. There is no rock pig posing equation at work here and strangely enough, it seems to work for them.
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