Navahodads/Upsets/Epileptic Pigmeez
Friday September 8, 2000
@ The Harp Hotel, Tempe
Navahodads/Upsets/Epileptic Pigmeez
Friday September 8, 2000
@
The Harp Hotel, Tempe
I'm
only a few minutes late, but as I negotiate the cramped car park behind the
Harp Hotel (and fail to find a spot!) I can already hear the Navahodads playing.
This is annoying as they don't play all that often and I've been looking forward
to catching them for the first time since their Cat & Fiddle show back in January.
Without even pausing to grab a beer on the way in, I elbow my way to a good
vantage point for the first surprise of the night.
Although for their first album ("Mumbo Gumbo") they were a four piece with occasional
keyboard assistance, keyboards have been increasingly in evidence at subsequent
shows and for their recent "Madame Mojo's" CD they were officially listed as
a five piece. Imagine my surprise then to find them back to being a four piece.
Imagine my even greater surprise as I begin to take in how much rockier their
sound has now become, without compromising their trademark cajun swamp blues
sound. We are treated to highlights of both their albums, but unfortunately
not my favourite "Funky She Devil" (unless I missed it at the beginning), and
the band sounds crisp and concentrated throughout the set. I only hope that
I don't have to wait nearly as long before catching them again.
It's been even longer since the Upsets last played - over a year in fact. Their
eagerness to get back into action is evident by the way they rush to start setting
up their equipment before the Navahodads have even finished clearing their own
gear off the stage. Once set up, it seems that Tony Harper's mike isn't working
and you can feel the tension in the air as he paces around the stage, tossing
off casual snatches of Herb Alpert tunes and the like on his guitar, while effectively
dangling at the mercy of the soundman who is dashing worriedly backwards and
forwards between the mixing desk and the stage.
Several erroneous signals from the soundman that the problem is fixed, which
lead to aborted attempts to start the first song when it turns out that it isn't
fixed at all, evidently do nothing to soothe Mr Harper or otherwise improve
the situation but at last the recalcitrant mike seems to be working and the
band explodes into the opening number. It's "State of Mind", coincidentally
the opening number on their EP which they are selling at the show.
Based on what I hear during their set, they have easily an album's worth of
original, high quality material, but I guess that since they were financing
this CD themselves they had no choice but to restrict the recording t o just
four tracks, meaning that many of equal excellence have had to be left off.
Away from recording studio restrictions, we get a range of pounding, pumping
rock, too hard edged to call power pop although it has defini te power pop sensibilities
beneath its muscular surface, plus a cover of the ever popular "Another Girl,
Another Planet" and a song which Mr Harper introduces as, "This is our tribute
to... what's the name of that band?".
They then go into "Hard To Please", a song which always throws me as the tune,
while not absolutely identical, is nevertheless recognisably the same as the
New Christs' "Here and Now" (apparently he wrote the tune during his time in
that band, then through a misunderstanding both he and Rob Younger wrote separate
lyrics to go with it and each band has since diverged a little on its realization).
The Upsets are on fire and go hard at it all the way through their set - in
fact nobody is taking any prisoners tonight - with Mr Harper only slowing a
little when thirst gets the better of him. An offer to buy two beers later for
anyone who'll buy him a beer right away backfires and threatens to bankrupt
the band as fresh beers come from everywhere. For the alcohol oriented audience
which follows the Pigmeez, clearly such an obvious barg ain is right up their
collective alley.
I've heard that what has mainly kept the Upsets off Sydney's stages over the
past year has been bass player trouble, or rather the lack thereof. Although
Steve King (presumably no relation to the author) is credited with bass on the
EP, the bass player tonight is former Celibate Rifle Michael Couvret. The line
up is completed by long time members Phil Jacquet, another ex-Celibate Rifle,
on drums and ex-Trilobite Martin Martini on guitar a nd backing vocals. I sincerely
hope this line up holds together because it packs some serious musical punch
and I for one want to see a whole album from these guys.
In the brief period of tranquility which follows the end of the Upsets' thunderous
set, I am finally able to take in my surroundings. The Harp is yet another Irish
themed pub although I'm not sure whether it's part of a c hain like most of
the others - they certainly don't seem to have spent as much money on renovations
and conceptual embellishments as usually seems to be the case with these chains/franchises.
In fact, aside from a couple of tourist posters, there's not a lot more Irish
ambience now than there was in its previous unIrish incarnation as the Riverview,
a name which subscribers to the Divine Rites list will doubtless recognise/remember
as the scene of the "Storming the Citadel" record launch... geez, was that really
two and half years ago??
And so the night reaches its climax with those publican's nightmares of the
late eighties, the Epileptic Pigmeez. For many bands the Upsets would have been
the support from a hell, a virtually impossible act to follow, bu t for the
Pigmeez there is such a sense of occasion about tonight that it gives them the
capacity to continue; occasion in the sense that this is definitely their last
ever gig (one member is going overseas shortly); in t he sense that a large
section of the audience are old fans or old friends or both and the night is
as much a party/celebration as it is a gig; and finally in the sense that they
are now playing in a pub from which they were banned in their heyday and so
ultimately can be seen to have triumphed over the forces of conformity (and
sobriety).
Despite a few rough edges, it's very hard to believe that most of these musicians
have not done any performing at all since the Pigmeez broke up 10 years ago,
aside from a couple of rehearsals and one previous reunion gig back in June.
We are treated to a representative selection of the Pigmeez' repertoire, together
with hell for leather covers of the likes of the Clash, the Hitmen and Box the
Jesuit and even a Wiggles number with guest vocalists in appropriate red, yellow
and purple coloured singlets (sorry if you're not familiar with the Wiggles,
but I'm not going to explain this). Although billed as "punk", the Pigmeez'
music falls very much along the traditional Oz/Detroit axis, providing many
echoes of those heavenly halcyon days (and nights) when it seemed that the music
coming out of Aussie pubs was destined to take over the world. We all know that
it didn't and the Pigmeez make it clear that it's the world's loss.
- John McPharlin
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