It’s not a secret that Melbourne produces some of the best bands in the country no matter what the genre of music. Any night of the week you can catch amazing gigs of whatever persuasion you fancy from acoustic jams to punk mayhem.
Currently Melbourne’s soul scene is turning out great acts like Soul Safari, Clairy Browne and Cookin’ On 3 Burners among others, and with such competition it takes a helluva lot to stand out from the crowd. Enter Saskwatch whose second album Nosedive contains some of the band’s best material to date, and with a slot at this year’s Splendour In The Grass it could be their opportunity to take the summit of that tough soul music mountain.
This past Saturday was the last show of their current tour showcasing the new album and it seems their fan base has moved well out of just soul music lovers judging by the number of sold-out shows they’ve performed
Opening one of these sold out nights was the balladry of Jim Lawrie, who fans may remember was once ‘Grizzly Jim Lawrie’ but seems to have decided to shave the title. The band’s songs somehow come off grandiose and humble at the same time with harmonised vocal lines that almost sound like a choir and reverb heavy piano riffs. It was a dreamy introduction to what was soon to turn into an EDM powered dance party.
New Gods have managed to take the essence of dance music and retrofit it back into a typical band format. Drum beats sound like they’ve been created on a machine accompanied by guitar tones that appear highly computerised. Seeing the band it comes as a bit of shock that it’s all being done right in front of you without a Macbook Pro in sight.
They’ve got some neat tricks up their sleeves and their grinding rhythms moved the mood of the night from a cushion filled lounge to an electrified pillow fight. Lead singer Dominic Byrne looked hazy eyed as he threw his hands out to the crowd urging them to take life by the neck and strangle all you could out of it.
Saskwatch’s live show embodies everything about soul music that makes it one of the coolest of the multitude of music genres. Smoke enveloped the room with hues of purple and blue lighting up the nine-piece as patterns of colourful shapes melded into each other on The Corner’s side of stage video feed. It was like stepping back in time and finding yourself in a go-go dance hall located in a dodgy suburb of 1970s England.
The whole band give off seemingly effortless amounts of class as the four-piece brass section move in time and lead singer Nkechi Anele saunters the stage. Anele has an exceptional control over her vocal range and timbre which can change from thunderous sass to a quiet whisper within a heartbeat.
The over an hour long set was mostly made up of their newer tracks with devilish slow burner ‘A Love Divine’ and ‘Born To Break Your Heart’ standing out as crowd favourites. A bit of a surprise came in the form of the band covering Little Red’s breakthrough track ‘Coca Cola’ infusing it with some sweet soulful horns.
Closing on their head bopping single ‘Hands’, the band threw whatever energy they had left in them for the final chords of the tour dripping the crowd of any sweat still trapped in their pores.
Sure, every band is going to say they have no competitive bent towards each other instead thinking of the scene as a tightly knit love-in and chances are it’s probably true. If, however, there were a crown to claim in Melbourne’s soul circles then Saskwatch have strong argument for the honour.
