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The Vasco Era + Special Patrol Jive, Fri 13 May  In
my opinion Special Patrol are one of the most promising prospects
to come out of Adelaide for a long time, and while tracks off their
brilliant 2004 debut album ‘The Golden Mean’ are still garnering interest
from radio stations across the nation, the band are now already including
newer tracks into their live set. Opening with former single In Your Head, they moved into three tastes of things to come: Walking Down Your Street, the quasi-country sounds of Emily, and Sonny, trailing off with a drum solo from Rob Jordan while the others took to the wings for a quick breather. This low key but nonetheless impressive drum display neatly segued into their current radio favourite, Your Feet, followed by the inaugural performance of My Friend, which saw all members shout in unison during its intro. Closing with Love That Holds Me To Ransom, Myles Mayo and Co had surely managed to sway many new fans their way. The biggest challenge facing anyone reviewing The Vasco Era is that many of their songs don’t actually have titles as such. Instead they set out their playlist by distinguishing features within each song: Bluesy is recognisable by its definite blues feel, Rocky is definable by it’s classic ‘rock’ sound, and so on. However, this should be of no concern to those who attended this sold out show: despite Sid O’Neil’s vocals not quite matching the extremely difficult demands he puts upon them, The Vasco Era’s reputation as a fierce, energetic live spectacle certainly didn’t disappoint. Songs that do have names (reportedly only for the sake of their CD releases) included He Came Along Again, Don’t Go To Sleep, and Kingswood. Cover versions chucked into the mix included Radiohead’s Street Spirit (Fade Out) and, as an acoustic solo by O’Neil, Neil Young’s Needle And The Damage Done, before utilising Nirvana’s Negative Creep as an extreme vocal lead in to Let It Burn. Another unknown track, which I’ll hazard a guess is called Stompy, saw drummer Michael Fitzgerald and bassist Ted O’Neil leave their instruments behind and with some hardcore handclaps and enthusiastic leg stomps, the pair matched paces with the equally frenetic guitar work from their frontman. By the way, I also went along to the next night’s show and both bands were even better. But seeing as though that was my night off, I’ll just leave it at that.  |
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