Tex Perkins & The Dark Horses/Del Emmas
Saturday, October 14, 2000
@ the Annandale Hotel, Sydney
I arrive fashionably late at 9:10 to find that the "surprise" support is the Del Emmas. The sign says they're scheduled to play from 8 to 9, but I can hear them still playing as I fork over the $16 entrance fee and happily they continue to play until 9:45, so it seems that I can't have missed much at all. Their lighthearted set takes us through most of their Barhop EP including the "I'll Let You Hold My Hand" Beatles homage, plus a few other tunes in their trademark jocular garage trash style.
There follows quite a long wait for Tex and the band, during which many members of the audience take the opportunity to try to improve their positions. It seems to be a big night for guitarists. Having bumped into Asteroid B612's John Spittles on the way in, I now spot both the Hunchbacks' John South and 300 St Clair's Mick Poole easing their way separately towards the front just before the band takes to the stage. I can't help wondering whether they're slipping forward to check out Charlie Owen's playing because, speaking as a non-musician, he never fails to impress the shit out of me and seems to be master of every fretted and stringed instrument (oh my God, is that a banjo?) known to man, plus piano and tonight he even plays a bit of blues harp...
The Dark Horses have been touring behind the new album for around three months now and I've lost count of their Sydney appearances, but it's either their 3rd or 4th trip up here over that period. However many times it's been, clearly Sydney cannot get enough of them as the place is packed, but despite the amount of practice which that much gigging must have given them, the constant swapping of instruments (Charlie, Joel Silbersher and Murray Paterson all take turns in playing guitar, bass and piano on different songs) occasionally results in the amusing spectacle of someone left stranded on the wrong side of the stage holding the wrong instrument just as the next song is about to start! Nevertheless that doesn't stop them working through most of the new album, including both the current and previous singles ("She Speaks A Different Language" and "I Know Y'Know I Know" respectively), plus a couple of well chosen older tunes and a splendidly weary cover of Neil Young's "On The Beach".
In his early days, I often thought that Tex was working too hard and just a little too blatantly at projecting the seedy, drained and derelict persona to go with his twisted, "alternative" country style of the music. Tonight there's a remorseful, jaded, smoky bar room tone to the performance that meshes perfectly with the songs and seems to be completely genuine and unforced. Since he's apparently now a happily married family man and his records are doing quite well both critically and financially, I can't imagine there's a lot of tragedy and sorrow in his life just at the moment, so I can only attribute this quality of his performance to talent and skill.
However with some audience members it has the unfortunate effect of misleading them into thinking they've found a kindred spirit, thereby prompting them to try to sing along. In the case of a gentleman standing near me, this sounds like a deeply distressed dog being forcibly and quite brutally put down. Hey dickhead, when I come over to your place and give you $16 to sit in your living room and listen to you sing, it'll be because I want to hear the sound of your voice; until then, why doncha keep ya lip zipped!?!
Fortunately he doesn't have nearly as much stamina as Tex and soon falls by the acoustic wayside, so by the time the set ends and we all stumble out onto Parramatta Road, this aural bad taste has been largely expunged from my mind and it's only the agreeable memory of Tex's vocals and demeanor that I take with me out into the night.
- John McPharlin
