The Good China Residency

Last night Tash and I met up at The Evelyn for the first week of The Good China's July residency. It was an evening of multi-instrumental bands with a large number of members. Starting off the evening was Icicle Melts in their first ever live show. Unfortunately, it showed. The band was just trying too hard to be avant-garde and none of the three vocalists could actually sing- let alone harmonize together. It was all a bit painful. Thankfully next on the stage was Plastic Palace Alice, who were fantastic. They are such good musicians and may have the best rhythm section in Melbourne. They played a few new songs as well as their classic "Empire Falls." Their guitarist also had on an 80s inspired outfit and was quite entertaining.

The Good China started off their set with "A Million Little Pieces." They have been busy in the studio recording their debut EP and each week at the residency they are playing a new song. This week we got "No More Maps, No More Roads" which was a great song. I really liked the way they have changed up the rhythm on the chorus of "Perversion For Profit" and "All Nothing" was a highlight of the night (Tash and I did the hand claps). It was good to see the Chinas live again and hopefully I'll make it to another show of the residency this month.

Plastic Palace Alice, The Greasers, and Oh Mercy

Last night Belinda and I headed over to the East Brunswick Club for the album launch of Plastic Palace Alice's "The Great Depression." We didn't know much about the band but were impressed by their musicianship and the epic, ornate nature of the songs. They even did a cover of Jefferson Airplane's "Don't You Want Somebody To Love?" which was entertaining.

The real reason we went to the show though was to see the opening bands Oh Mercy and The Greasers. Oh Mercy kicked off the night with their folk-pop tunes. It was a mellow set but this young band has a great catalogue of songs already, which I would love to get my hands on as a CD release. Next were The Greasers, an off shoot band for Little Red's Dominic Byrne. The Greasers are rockier than Little Red but the songs and harmonies are still there. I was really happy to hear them perform "Metamorphosis," one of my favorites. Their debut album is coming out next week, so I will be eager to get a copy as I think the songs will be a bit more polished on record.