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     Mark Leydon Member Username: Mark_leydon Post Number: 12 Registered: 05-2005 |
From the Melbourne Age http://www.theage.com.au/news/reviews/the-gobetweens/2005/07/17/1121538861612.ht ml?oneclick=true The Go-Betweens Reviewer Michael Dwyer July 18, 2005 Forum Theatre, July 15 Only the really hardcore Go-Betweens fans could recall whether that reference to a London bomb fatality was always there in Grant McLennan's obscure solo number of '91, Black Mule. Maybe he updated his oblique parable of random fortune to begin Friday night's concert with a resonant flourish. Either way, the gesture asserted the precious value of lyrics in his and Robert Foster's minimalistic pop-folk approach. For all the pair's oft-discussed contrasts, they're both storytellers first. The fact that we listened and heard their every word was one reminder of what makes them vital in a medium so easily waylaid by sounds more novel than poetic. Their common ground was spelled out in an acoustic duo version of Clouds, in which they borrowed a verse from Bob Dylan's Love Minus Zero/No Limit in almost reverent unison. As with that abiding influence, their classic songs - Spring Rain, Streets of Your Town, Draining the Pool For You - remain indelible explosions of imagery strung together with the kind of sturdy scaffold arrangements that tend to attract beginner guitarists. AdvertisementAdvertisement Their new-era songs, (they spent the '90s pursuing parallel solo careers), weren't merely seamless in such company, but often dramatically superior. Forster's bone-dry snapshots of innocent youth - Surfing Magazines, Born to Family, Darlinghurst Nights - were equal parts humour and melancholy. McLennan's Boundary Rider reduced the essence of his long, lonely poet's journey to an even more concentrated potency. Befitting their support roles, rhythm section Adele Pickvance and drummer Glenn Thompson rarely came to the fore, though the roar that greeted Pickvance's plain bass solo during The Clock gave a pretty clear indication of the crowd's appreciation. Ironically, the newer players were most impressive during the Go-Betweens' much older, and perhaps most rhythmically challenging tune Cattle and Cane. A notable omission on their past few Melbourne visits, that always transcendent song was impossible to surpass on this occasion, but its incandescent sense of nostalgia wasn't the reason. That was there, after all, when McLennan wrote it in '83: as good an illustration as any of art that remains truly timeless. | ||
| Mark Leydon Member Username: Mark_leydon Post Number: 13 Registered: 05-2005 |
From the Sydney Morning Herald: http://www.smh.com.au/news/review/the-gobetweens/2005/07/17/1121538862031.html?o neclick=true The Go-Betweens Reviewed by Bernard Zuel July 18, 2005 Metro, July 16 Two years ago Robert Forster, the taller, darker and more dapper of the Go-Betweens "twins", alongside Grant McLennan, the shorter, lighter and earthier one, told the Herald: "At our age we're still an adventurous pop band. We're still ambitious." Ambition is one thing, success is another. Back in the 1980s, in their first incarnation, the Go-Betweens were the effete, angular and mostly ignored (in Australia) yin to the dominance of blustery, blokey pub rock yang. As such there were moments such as the night they played the Stardust Hotel in Cabramatta and the in-house DJ refused to cut short his track even though the band was on stage ready to go. That venue is gone and that DJ is probably doing a Mobydisc round at a nursing home near you, but the Go-Betweens, in their second incarnation as a band (with the perfectly weighted backing of Adele Pickvance on bass and essential female backing vocals and Glenn Thompson as the more straightforward but still inventive replacement for Lindy Morrison on drums), are having a textbook late-life resurgence. The Metro was all but sold out and the crowd eager, for the new as much as the old. The cry for Lavender from the most recent album, their third since reforming in 2000, was as strong as the demand for early single Lee Remick. More importantly though, these new songs, which dominated the night, did not pale by comparison with the established favourites. McLennan's Boundary Rider and Finding You are as tender and beautiful a pair of songs as he's ever written; Forster's Darlinghurst Nights and Born To A Family as droll and slightly tart (musically and lyrically) as can be found in his back catalogue. Along the way was a showbizzy (but still moving) Cattle And Cane, the simultaneously sporty and campy Surfing Magazines and a third encore of the relatively ancient This Girl, Black Girl and People Say for a night of adventure, pop and ambition in equal measure. They may have a future, these kids. | ||
| Michael Member Username: Michael Post Number: 19 Registered: 08-2004 |
Hobart July 29th Friday night at the Theatre Royal, Australia's oldest theatre - awh wow. Did you say Australia's oldest theatre, really? Yep - awh wow, said Robert over the line on ABC radio, not knowing the fact until then, a few days before the gig. Down the end of the street the Derwent flows, that's where the Derwent flows. Nowhere near Delray. When they played at the theatre Robert confessed he had misheard the name of the town near the mountains as Delray. Deloraine is in northern Tasmania and Grant had been taken by the place near the mountains and mentioned it when back from holiday. About 250-300 Go-Betweens nerds gathered for the gig. Some of them supernerds who had looked up Delray on google and found it in the northern hemisphere. My mate from Deloraine was pleased we now had the song in the state where it belonged. The first trip for the band to Tasmania. It was a good show, not as good as the Barbican, but you can't do that all the time I suppose. Cattle and Cane was superb, Joy Division coming through. Clouds as above came second after Black Mule started the show, Adele on Streets was great. I can't help feeling Mr Thompson is underutilised. No Lavender unfortunately |