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Going by their sound, you’d have to imagine that Whiskey Go Gos have named themselves after the Sunset Strip nightclub that played a pivotal role in the career of The Doors and, to a lesser extent, The Byrds and Love. There’s also the original 1940s Parisian discotheque, of course, and the club in Brisbane where 15 people burnt to death in a 1973 firebomb attack, but neither fits the image quite so well. Certainly, the Go Gos have a hint of sixties psychedelia about them, though there are other influences on display too, not least some elements of blues and country. In short, there’s nothing spectacularly original about Whiskey Go Gos, but if you catch their live show it’s unlikely that you’ll care.
On first listen the songs – especially 'True Love' – are good enough that you want to hear them again, more or less immediately, and there’s no doubting the Go Gos charisma or stage presence. Frontman, singer, guitarist and songwriter Matt Hutchinson is both the star and the driving force behind the band, but he’s ably assisted by the luxuriously underworked P Bone Pebbles. Pebbles does nothing much apart from shaking a tambourine or some maracas while showing off an Afro that Beyoncé would once have been proud of, but that only adds to the overall effect. To all of their other attributes you can add a rare lightness of touch, something you certainly wouldn’t accuse the second act of demonstrating in their set.
The Temper Trap have been building a reputation for themselves around their home town of Melbourne, but following Whiskey Go Gos is no easy task. In comparison they seem almost unbearably earnest and more than a little wooden, lacking both the inspiration and the agility of the Go Gos. Which isn’t to say that they’re bad, just that tonight’s line up hasn’t treated them particularly well. On the other hand, they are much better suited, stylistically, to supporting the Howling Bells. There are occasional hints of more dance-oriented influences in their sound, but the dominant element is a fairly dark strain of indie. Peter Parker’s Alter Ego is dull both as a song and a performance; the more energetic Sirens is far better and the highlight of the set, using Dougy’s voice – the band’s main asset – to good effect. In the end there’s nothing desperately wrong with The Temper Trap, but there’s nothing desperately right either.
Howling Bells were good enough the last time they were in Adelaide, though the most impressive feature of their set was the excellent material they’d developed since their days as Waikiki rather than their performance of it. Tonight they show us just how much they’ve improved in the intervening eight months. In terms of what they play, the show is almost identical to the last one. Any new material is well hidden – very well hidden – and changes in the set list amount to nothing much more than tinkering with the order. Yet it’s worth noting that the four musicians on stage are the very same ones, because you wouldn’t necessarily guess it from how they sound. The arrangements have been strengthened, certainly, but the main difference is in the intensity of their playing. The Howling Bells are harder, tighter, tougher: almost everything about their musicianship is better now than it was before.
But there’s also an air of weariness about the band, perhaps even a hint of seen-it-all cynicism from four musicians who have hardly been off the road in the past eighteen months. Juanita is a little chattier than she was, and a little less spontaneous. Last time she seemed surprised that the audience wanted to engage with her; this time she’s prepared for it, though there’s no longer any need to fend off requests for old Waikiki songs. Overall, she and the band still seem rather aloof, but that hardly matters. Many of the best bands you’ll ever see let their music do the talking, and there’s no reason why that shouldn’t include Howling Bells. For one thing, the songs they play certainly won’t suffer, since there’s such a strong element of the mysterious within them anyway. And for another, when you play as well as this, what else really needs to be said?
At fifty minutes or so it’s a short set, just as it was before, and it closes, once again, with 'Low Happening'. But this time there’s no encore, and that’s the only significant backward step. It’s clearly nothing to do with how the Howling Bells are received, however, because tonight the venue, the crowd and the reception have all been scaled up – and deservedly so.
