DIED PRETTY
ABC TV STUDIOS
February 5, 2001
The Barman and a Drinking Mate of Some Long Standing arrived unfashionably early
for this, the live taping of the live-in-your-loungeroom music program "Studio
22", which goes to air on Australia's national broadcaster, ABCTV. Losing,
and thus ignoring, the very specific and detailed instructions of band manager
John Needham, we entered the studios via the staff entrance which was all for
the best; it enabled us to sit through the 40-minute rehearsal while the other
ticketholders were coralled in the reception area.
The signs on the wall did say "It's Your ABC" (the broadcaster is
taxpayer-funded) so we took them literally, even trying to scrounge a cup of
coffee from the stash meant for the crew (though the absence of hot water cruelled
that). If you're an Australian reading this then it's your ABC too and you probably
know the format of the show alread, but for the benefit of overseas bar patrons,
Studio 22 sets a band in a rehearsal room mode (ie. in a circle facing each
other) while a crowd of 100 or so fans occupies the periphery of the set. The
mood is informal as the feature act runs through half a dozen tunes, with a
floor manager whipping up the crowd enthusiasm between songs. It's intro'd by
a veteran Australian rock journalist, Clinton Walker, who also does off-set
interviews with the band to drop into the show.
The set for tonight's show is revealed to be a couple of songs ("Burning
Mad" and "Brighter Ideas") from "everydaydream", the
new album which you should own by now, and a handful of older ones plucked from
a CD-EP ("Radio") and three more ("D.C.", "Disaster"
and "Sweetheart") from one of the best discs of the '90s, "Doughboy
Hollow". Robbie Warren tempts us by playing the bass line from "Out
of the Unknown" for a milli-second, but it's not to be - the set list is
pre-determined to allow for camera angles and so on. Oh well.
The band are clad in mostly black, save for Ronnie Peno's white cowboy hat and
elevator shoes. Also sporting black-framed glasses, his ensemble sends Drinking
Mate of Long Standing into apolexy - "He's gagging if he's going to go
on dressed like that" - which is probably the desired effect. (A comment
is later made on the Died Pretty mailing list that this get-up is probably R.S.
Peno's Madonna mode).
Drinking Mate goes green with ebvy at Robbie's bass sound and rig. Robbie does
not offer to let him fill in.
Clinton Walker's introduction is anecdotal; apparently, in 1986, before forming
his own excerable country-grunge band the Killer Sheep, he auditioned for the
DP bass spot. "They seem to have done alright without me," is one
line but self-indulgence shouldn't surprise - Walker's revisionist history of
Australian indie music "Stranded" was about him as much as it was
about the music. He manages to pull it off in rehearsal (doing in front of more
than two people later on will require three takes but, hey, that's TV). The
crowd shuffles in and we're heading for a take.
"Brighter Ideas" leads off (with Simon Cox temporarily evacuating
his drummer's seat for some perfunctory twiddles of dials on John Hoey's second
keyboard box). "Radio" is next cab-off-the-rank with Ron managing
to slip in a greeting to his son, watching at home, before "Burning Mad",
with its Zappaesque keyboard approximation of a xylophone yielding to a finger-plucked
bass introand layers of guitar, backbeat and soaring vocals.
(Is it just me or does the band seem a mite uptight tonight? There's even less
audience acknowledgement or interplay than at a pub or club show and guitarist
Brett Myers seemed in no mood earlier in rehearsals to cut the practice session
short. Ron seems at a loss to fill in some of the quiet spaces, resorting to
an acappella version of "Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair"
at one stage. Phew! )
"Disaster" varies the pace nicely (though Brett's Strat seems to go
out of tune late in the piece) while the other two oldies "Sweetheart"
(the best song - probably only song - written about mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer)
and "D.C." (the 'hit single' - should have been a monster) are lapped
up enthusiastically. The band opts to re-do "Radio" and "Brighter
Ideas" (where Simon Cox twiddles one button too many, requiring another
run through). The songs are re-done to the band's satisfaction and it's time
to shuffle out.
Studio live-to-airs are a bit like EPs - they don't go long enough - but the
price was right (free) and the performance pretty good, if not with the same
energy as playing full-tilt in front of a pub crowd. Died Pretty performances
are so few and far between that I'll take whatever's on offer, thanks. Oh, and
the eipsode of "Studio 22" can be seen on "your ABC" sometime
in April. - The Barman
