Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Gun Street Girls with Matt Sonic & The High Times

Band: Gun Street Girls with Matt Sonic & The High Times
Date: 20th May 2011
Reviewed By: Espylyn

Tonight I came out to the double headline act of Gun Street Girls and Matt Sonic and The High Times. GSG are straight off the back of their national support tour with the USA’s The Hold Steady and Matt Sonic and Co are straight off the back of their USA tour and are about to record their second album.

The night started with the Melbourne band, Wicked City, who had a loud vibe and it was so loud I think my ears bled! Well not quite, but due to lack of people in the room, they could be feeling the same thing. Wicked City is a three piece rock outfit from Melbourne and their sound is loud!

Matt Sonic and The High Times were before us with 3 guitars and drums and they licked the stage with their tunes that are reminiscent of the 80’s. Hair-do’s, opened shirts and riffs that took me back in time. Matt has a look like Joe Elliot of Def Leppard, and he unleashed a few guitar hooks whilst the female bass player unleased a few curly riffs to the punters. Although they are very accomplished musicians, the vocals were a tad scratchy. The East, from my experience, has failed me a few times now for decent sound, which could explain the lack of substance here tonight. When Matt did the talking songs, the sound was much catchier. By now, the crowd started filling up and I even spotted Scott Owen of The Living End lurking in the corner. High rolling pumping guitar hero action and they ended their set with ‘Dirty, Slow Moon’ where Matt sings “Ran into Devil/Sky turned black” and the show ended with drums and thumping riffs.

Dave entered stage with much gusto and tried to crank up the lull in the crowd. I don’t think they wanted to be pepped up tonight, they seemed quite happy with beer in one hand, and toe’s tapping with big smiles on their faces. I could see how this would be annoying to the band. The boys went straight into the song ‘How I Roll’ (off their debut CD) which sounded distorted in the venue and ‘Tell It Like It Is’ wasn’t sounding all that much better (off their latest CD, Adult Loose). I’m not sure if I got used to the sound but the night definitely got better. Dave gets people to move closer and when they do he realised he is about to sing a slow number so he decides to chuck that idea and head to a rockier new number which delves into a raw, dirty quenching sound. ‘The Mission’ is a catchy tune, and with sweat dripping down their faces we are introduced to the rest of the band who are Callum John Barter on drums and Dave Butterworth on bass. Callum seems to love what he is doing, going off with oomph yet managing many smiles and laughter. Dave Butterworth sings a few new songs tonight which give us a feel for the newer style songs off the latest album, and these are a rocking relief, I say relief as sometimes band with multiple singers can lose their appeal. Next we are taken straight into ‘Millennium Man’ and ‘One Slip Away’ off the debut album and ‘Disappointing Friend’ from Adult Loose, the newie. There is definitely an odd mood tonight, but it’s definitely not a bad one, I look around and most people are in the age bracket of 35-45 (including me) and I wonder if we are getting to an age where we have been gigging for years and at midnight, we are all wishing we are home in our cosy homes. But, I’m not complaining as the boys earned their money tonight, they looked like they were having fun and when they launched into “Borderline’ it produced screaming guitar and the punters rocked about to it.

Not long afterwards few punters did leave and those who stayed saw Matt Sonic and Gun Street Girls belt out some covers which include ‘Gimme Shelter’ and ‘Foxy Lady’ and the later saw Dave on bass carry some high notes to the end!