Two Thursdays in a Month of Augusts

Last Thursday night Nicole and I met in the Brunswick Street area for another serve of The Basics' residency at The Evelyn. Introducing her to Bimbo Deluxe, we devoured their awesome, and oh so cheap, pizza in the dark, before crossing the road to join a packed house.

Supports for the night, with a growing crowd, were Hot Liquid Sex and Princess One Point Five - of whom I would probably give Princess another listen...

The Basics were awesome this night, their best gig I have seen to date. Tons of energy on stage, and lots of fun, I was loving this show. Kris, the presence and link to the audience was playful and chatty, and he and Tim up front were dancing, and just having so much fun! The addition of the sax on stage also added that extra element.

They have been playing tracks off their up coming album, as well as a mix of their previous albums, to the point that we are quite familiar with most of the new tracks. I Could Go On, Carolina, Better, and Memory Lane stand outs from the back catalogue, with With This Ship and Like A Brother from the pending album sounding awesome. The track The Executioner was delivered with some brutal, hurt force from Kris - someone has broken that lad's heart, and that girl must be mortified at the musical interpretation! Wilson Picket's Land of a Thousand Dances, and The Clash's Rock The Casbar were the rocking covers - such a great show!

This week, Mary joined Nicole and I for the gig, and we enjoyed the first band for the night, The Harpoons. Making us laugh with their cute lyrics, this young Melbourne band could be a bit of a find. If You Wanna Dance - so cute!

We endured The Swindlers, who we were unimpressed by, before The Basics appeared for the last gig of the residency. The first half of the set for me was flat, and I wondered if perhaps the grueling schedule of Tuesday gigs in Sydney and then our Thursday shows had taken their toll over the month. But then Kris got The Executioner out of his self-confessed heart-broken system, and then the gig took off! The vocal range of Wally, as always, was disarmingly good. Have Love Will Travel by Tim was gritty...and Wally dedicated one of the great new tracks to Tash - I'll take that! Thanks Wally!

An encore last night, including Rattle My Chain, and ending with New Kid On The Block and then a great rendition of The Police's Roxanne by request from the audience, this residency was awesome! A month of getting to know the lads, it seems like - but next year is too far away for the release of the new album!!