SUGARLAND/MCCLYMONTS - NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB - 18 /3/08
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There were
no problems with the lighting at stage left in the Northcote Social Club
for the Melbourne debut of Georgian chart toppers Sugarland.
Support act The McClymonts chose the merchandising counter as the locale
for photo shoots with fans in boots from Utes driven into town from the
bush.
The Golden Guitar winning Grafton born sisters seemed to be doing more
business on aptly titled debut CD Chaos And Bright Lights than
their headliners whose tee shirts bore a $40 price tag.
And, even
when the house lights dimmed for the arrival of Sugarland, there was still
a shaft above the merchandise HQ.
It enabled a brunette merchandiser, hair sensibly tied back in a clip,
to enjoy her page turning paperback with the tell all marking of the trusty
remaindered pen on the spine, for the entire 15 song set.
Now, was this concert for an internationally acclaimed duo with CD and
DVD sales exceeding a cool five million an experience to send a city slicker
to the retreat of a discount book?
Well, it depends on your musical taste.
The McClymonts warmed the audience with a snappy selection from their
country pop debut on Universal, also Australian label for Sugarland.
A national regional tour with country king Lee Kernaghan and a brace of
big festivals, fuelled by CMC and Nu Country TV exposure-community radio
airplay, has enabled them to lift their profile.
Their stage patter, drenched in filial folksiness, is also endearing to
an audience with a penchant for feel good country - not the ruptured romance
roughage of peers living on the edge.
So the sisters were an ideal entree for the headliners who enjoyed much
larger crowds on their weekend performances at major festivals in Fremantle
and Thredbo.
But this was a sold out gig at a busy venue where fans didn't suffer the
summer sauna sweat like the 2007 concert for Steve Young and Mary Gauthier.
The decision to cap the crowd and open a western door at appropriate times
enabled a breeze to give welcome relief.
CORPUS CHRISTI TO BEER CAN HILL
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The
folksiness didn't dissipate during the arrival on stage of Jennifer
Nettles, partner in rhyme Kristian Bush and five piece backing band. Sugarland may be huge stars in the U.S. but this was back to basics rebirth in an inner northern suburbs bar that also hosted fellow Fremantle, Thredbo and Byron Bay guest Patty Griffin on her Australian debut last year with guitarist Doug Lancio. |
There was
no on stage drum roll or hype - just waves from Nettles and Bush, replete
with a leather hat that owed more to Dr Hook icon Ray Sawyer than Charlie
Daniels.
The duo took its band name from a city in Ford Bend county in South-east
Texas so it was no surprise they kicked off this Beer Can Hill sojourn
with the title track of debut disc Twice The Speed Of Life.
"We drove all night to get to Corpus Christi, my parents slept right
through they never missed me," sang Nettles, who hails from Douglas
in the rural rump of south Georgia near the Florida border.
They primed small town nostalgia with a quick segue into County Line,
extolling the bliss of adolescence - "it's first love and football
wars/ a French kiss and battle cries/ further than I've been before/ down
on the county line."
The embryonic romance theme continued in Want To with Nettles using
tambourine, equally as a prop and instrument, and Bush swapping acoustic
guitar for mandolin and electric guitar in successive songs.
This was a show big on visual communication - eye contact and audience
inter-action was a joyous conduit to a brand new audience in a distant
hemisphere.
It wasn't just Nettles and Bush - beaming bassist Annie Clements was effervescent
in her playing and harmonising with her enduring aura of beatific bliss.
Guitarists James Patton and Robert Beaty traded licks with each other
and Bush with little of the detached disdain practiced by road weary rock
dogs.
Drummer Travis McNabb, frocked up in tie and short-sleeved jumper, was
energised akin to keyboard player Brandon Bush who also played accordion.
With only five years on the Sugarland clock but many more in the pre-fame
bar wars with diverse outfits they showed no sign of contempt for their
life blood - the fans.
So it was no surprise they appeared to enjoy acting out new song Operation
Working Vacation in this remote outpost.
"It feels like swampy Georgia up here on stage," Nettles joked
before confessing they were tempted to change the lyrics of Every Day
America for their host country.
Then it was time for a love ballad - Just Might Make Be Believe
- but no credit to its writer and band co-founder Kristen Hall, now 46,
who walked the plank as Sugarland soared to success in 2006.
But Nettles, just 33, confessed that the duo, prolific writers, did not
compose their next song - a bluegrass version of Beyonce hit Irreplaceable.
This enabled them to stretch out with Bush again swapping guitar for mandolin
while namesake accordionist Brandon Bush enriched their gymnastic genre
role reversal.
It preceded the septet road testing the rollicking We Run - second
song here from its third album, recorded in Atlanta in February.
CHEATERS
| Then
it was time for their latest hit Stay - a cheating song written
from the viewpoint of the woman in the triangle urging her lover to
return to his betrothed with accordion front and centre in the mix. It was perhaps ironic that Texas tabloid TV drama Cheaters was aired an hour later on the night of this concert on the Seven Network. But viewers were not treated to the innovative use of Stay as an aural soundtrack to its guilt filled climaxes. Maybe the merchandiser, still turning remaindered book pages under her bright light shaft, was also enjoying a cheating tale. |
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Nettles announced a tempo change for second album entrée Settlin' before comparing touring to a zoo visit as her intro to Down In Mississippi Up To No Good.
The band's
unashamed attempts to broaden their music audience peaked in Who Says
You Can't Go Home - the Grammy award winning Nettles-Jon Bon Jovi
hit.
Then it was back to their embryonic hit Baby Girl - a salient snapshot
of their journey to stardom and fools gold distractions.
"Black top, blue sky/ big town full of little white lies/ everybody's
your friend, you can never be sure/ they'll promise fancy cars and diamond
rings."
By now, with the encore looming, Bush was bombarding the audience with
plectrums on a smaller scale than Ronnie Dunn's drumstick shower at the
tennis court.
The band decamped stage briefly before a rapid return with Nettles crowd-pleasing
retort - "we didn't want to go home anyway."
It was perhaps fitting that the one song encore was Something More
- entrée song for their debut disc.
Despite audience clamors for more the house lights were soon ignited -
yes, by the merchandiser who belatedly laid down her book for the business
of tee shirt sales.
It was only 10.30 p m on Beer Can Hill but with a 15 song set this was
a nice intro to a band whose return tour is likely to be in much larger
venues.
That will, of course, depend on success of the multi-media blitz to open
the doors of commercial radio and TV.
Sugarland may not be as challenging cerebrally as the singer-songwriters
who fuel the genre but, like Brooks & Dunn, they gave their audience
what they wanted - a snappy set of feel good country pop.
Nettles' vocal range is equally dynamic live as on record and a vibrant
vehicle for the songs reflecting life in the Sugarland version of the
New South and way beyond.
Their reward was the reaction from an audience, most from out of the city
limits, in a nation where country is the forgotten genre in the big smoke
and mirrors media.
Review by David Dawson