Matthew E. White (supported by Ross McLennan)
Northcote Social Club, Northcote
Monday 3 June 2013
Ross McLennan
image courtesy of everguide.com.au
I was delighted when I heard Ross McLennan would support Matthew E. White for his Northcote Social Club show. While the two artists aren’t similar in terms of sound, they both make stunning music and do it with enormous integrity.
Ross McLennan’s most recent album The Night’s Deeds Are Vapour was released in February and you’ll find a number of tracks peppered throughout our monthly playlists on this site. True to form, it contains a bunch of great off-beat pop songs from the former Snout frontman, complete with McLennan’s cynical observations fashioned into clever lyrics. When Ross took to the stage it was in front of an audience of about 12 people. I guess this is one of the cruel injustices of being a working musician – big crowds one night, empty rooms the next. A Monday night support slot for an international artist who’s not that widely known on a wintry Melbourne evening would not be most artists most sought after gig, I’m guessing.
That said, the audience grew throughout his set and Ross played well despite the audience being attentive, yet flat.
After opening with the fabulous ‘Symphobia’ (Hits From The Brittle Building, 2003) he played 7 songs from The Night’s Deeds Are Vapour including my favourites ‘Get This’, ‘Grim Faces at the Caravan Park’ and ‘My Brother Stoats’ plus ‘I’m Heavy As I’ve Ever Been’ (Sympathy For The New World, 2008).
McLennan’s style is so off-beat that it doesn’t translate that well to solo guitar and vocals. I was left feeling unsure whether I would have ‘got it’ without knowing the material, but my gig-going buddy didn’t know his music and enjoyed the set which was reassuring. One of the beautiful things about McLennan’s sound is the inherent looseness of it, but this is best appreciated when it’s in contrast to a structured backdrop – without the other instruments it loses its reference point.
One bonus of the solo format however is the great opportunity it presents to hear his lyrics, including gems like “Grim faces at the caravan park/Small shadows running into dark/In danger because they can’t be seen/In among the wheels of this wretched machine” (‘Grim Faces at the Caravan Park’).
He was joined by a clarinetist/saxophonist for the last three tracks and whilst he lamented the lack of a drummer prior to playing ‘My Brother Stoats’, the sax helped give it the punch required. Whilst not the most memorable live set I’ve seen, it’s always refreshing to listen to McLennan’s lyrics and it made me want to get along to his next live show with a band.
Ross McLennan’s most recent album The Night’s Deeds Are Vapour was released in February and you’ll find a number of tracks peppered throughout our monthly playlists on this site. True to form, it contains a bunch of great off-beat pop songs from the former Snout frontman, complete with McLennan’s cynical observations fashioned into clever lyrics. When Ross took to the stage it was in front of an audience of about 12 people. I guess this is one of the cruel injustices of being a working musician – big crowds one night, empty rooms the next. A Monday night support slot for an international artist who’s not that widely known on a wintry Melbourne evening would not be most artists most sought after gig, I’m guessing.
That said, the audience grew throughout his set and Ross played well despite the audience being attentive, yet flat.
After opening with the fabulous ‘Symphobia’ (Hits From The Brittle Building, 2003) he played 7 songs from The Night’s Deeds Are Vapour including my favourites ‘Get This’, ‘Grim Faces at the Caravan Park’ and ‘My Brother Stoats’ plus ‘I’m Heavy As I’ve Ever Been’ (Sympathy For The New World, 2008).
McLennan’s style is so off-beat that it doesn’t translate that well to solo guitar and vocals. I was left feeling unsure whether I would have ‘got it’ without knowing the material, but my gig-going buddy didn’t know his music and enjoyed the set which was reassuring. One of the beautiful things about McLennan’s sound is the inherent looseness of it, but this is best appreciated when it’s in contrast to a structured backdrop – without the other instruments it loses its reference point.
One bonus of the solo format however is the great opportunity it presents to hear his lyrics, including gems like “Grim faces at the caravan park/Small shadows running into dark/In danger because they can’t be seen/In among the wheels of this wretched machine” (‘Grim Faces at the Caravan Park’).
He was joined by a clarinetist/saxophonist for the last three tracks and whilst he lamented the lack of a drummer prior to playing ‘My Brother Stoats’, the sax helped give it the punch required. Whilst not the most memorable live set I’ve seen, it’s always refreshing to listen to McLennan’s lyrics and it made me want to get along to his next live show with a band.
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By the time Matthew E White and his four piece backing band took the stage, the venue was full without being overcrowded. The first thing he did was ask the score in the Richmond/West Coast match and updates on the score were given by audience members periodically throughout the night. Later in the night he explained his fascination with the “Richmond Tigers”, as he called them (because he’s from Richmond, Virginia), and said he’d heard of the AFL team but didn’t know what sport they played until he arrived in Australia last week. His fascination deepened when he drove past the team’s training ground on the way to the ABC studios for an interview, and he stopped to buy a Tigers t-shirt which he was proudly wearing.
White and his band opened with ‘Will you Love Me’ one of the most beautifully gentle tracks from his debut Big Inner (a former MadfaMusic feature album). The softly sung opening line signaled that we were in for something pretty special, and potentially a show that might deliver the warmth of the album, but the shonky mix stripped this song of some of its subtlety. Given the sadness of the chorus lyrics (“This loneliness it won’t leave me alone/ It’s such a drag to be on your own/ You left and you didn’t say why/Mostly darkness in my mind/Sometimes it leaves me/Sometimes it leaves me blind”), it’s miraculous that this song has an uplifting quality to it. On the recording this is due to the horns and gospel backing vocals, both of which were absent on the night, yet somehow the warmth remained. Next up was ‘One of These Days’- another gentle gem from the album. Rhodes/synth player Gabe Churray created some great atmospheric sounds on this track, an enhancement on the recorded version, and he was clearly getting into it. Matthew’s higher register sat very uneasily in the mix on this track but thankfully the sound improved after that! ‘Steady Pace’ was played much faster than it is on the album but the pace was indeed steady, thanks to drummer Pinson Chanselle and percussionist Scott Clark. They delivered a great cover of Neil Young’s ‘Are You Ready for the Country?’ followed by ‘Big Love’, the most hook laden song on Big Inner. Again this was faster than the album version and included a lengthy percussion break with Matthew and bassist Cameron Ralston each brandishing shakers and tambourines. |
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Matthew E. White image courtesy of emusic.com
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Prior to playing a cover of Randy Newman’s ‘Sail Away’, White told a lengthy story about having visited Newman’s house to give him some of his music. Having read several of White’s interviews, I was aware of his penchant for not letting the truth get in the way of a good story. And it was a good story, about how he was visiting a (cue irony) small town called LA, where, given there wasn’t much to do, he thought he might just look up one of his musical heroes, Randy Newman in the phone book and drop in some copies of his CDs and perhaps have lunch with him. The story went that the maid said Mr Newman wasn’t home, and White left his CDs and contact details, but much to his surprise, never heard from Randy.
The version of Sail Away they played was quite transporting. It was meditative, full of atmospheric guitar, gentle bass and repetitive percussion.
The set was rounded out with two new tracks, including ‘If You Need Me’ which ended with a repeated line “ain't nothing healing like the human touch". The gently soulful and country tinged ‘Gone Away’ made an appearance before the show closer ‘Brazos’. This track ends with a repetitive jam featuring the lyrics “Jesus Christ is our Lord/Jesus Christ, He is your friend”. Much has been made of Matthew E. White’s Christian missionary upbringing and the themes of religion and love on the album. He’s been cited as a Christian troubadour by some and as anti-religious by others, but, as I understand it he doesn’t relate to either of those labels.
He strikes me as not only an enormous musical talent, but someone who intends to do things differently. The show came with a program containing all the lyrics and hand drawn pictures, commentary revealing a deep appreciation for the experience of witnessing live music, and information about the inspirations for the album and the community involved in his label Spacebomb, which references the Motown model of a house band who play on all recordings.
The version of Sail Away they played was quite transporting. It was meditative, full of atmospheric guitar, gentle bass and repetitive percussion.
The set was rounded out with two new tracks, including ‘If You Need Me’ which ended with a repeated line “ain't nothing healing like the human touch". The gently soulful and country tinged ‘Gone Away’ made an appearance before the show closer ‘Brazos’. This track ends with a repetitive jam featuring the lyrics “Jesus Christ is our Lord/Jesus Christ, He is your friend”. Much has been made of Matthew E. White’s Christian missionary upbringing and the themes of religion and love on the album. He’s been cited as a Christian troubadour by some and as anti-religious by others, but, as I understand it he doesn’t relate to either of those labels.
He strikes me as not only an enormous musical talent, but someone who intends to do things differently. The show came with a program containing all the lyrics and hand drawn pictures, commentary revealing a deep appreciation for the experience of witnessing live music, and information about the inspirations for the album and the community involved in his label Spacebomb, which references the Motown model of a house band who play on all recordings.
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Big Inner leaves you feeling like you’ve been bathed in a warm cocoon of tenderness and soulful insight, and whilst a little bit of the subtlety of the record was lost in the live experience, the grooves were deeply felt by performers and audience members alike. At the end of the night I felt like I’d met a really interesting guy, heard some truly original music and been part of an intimate live experience.
White tweeted the following morning “Australia has been amazing. Thank you giant island country-continent for the time of my life, I’m coming back as soon as I can. Xo.” Let’s hope it happens soon. Lex Cran |
There was an incredible amount of love in the room flowing in both directions. The audience were clearly getting off on the deep grooves that the band served up, wrapped in aspects of blues, country, soul, gospel and R&B, and White talked about how appreciative he is of being able to travel the world to play his music, and thanked the audience for their part in making that possible. There was quite a bit of dialogue between White and the audience too, which gave the feel of a one-off experience rather than a well-rehearsed show. At one point an audience member yelled out “Hey Matt, what do the Rasta colours mean to you?” referring to the red, green and yellow on White’s guitar strap. White looked tempted to engage in discussion about it (and mentioned later that he tends to be a bit of a chatterbox), but simply said “I like reggae”.
Matthew E. White image courtesy of styleweekly.com
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Want to listen to more by Matthew E. White? Check out the video and soundcloud tracks we posted when his album was our feature album (6 May 2013) or listen via our March, May and June playlists here.
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