IN THE PINES
Somerville Auditorium, UWA
Sunday, April 13, 2003.

Like Christmas, In The Pines returns every year
to give us the gift of local sound. While for
some it’s more an opportunity to laze around
under the shade of the trees and embellish in
the atmosphere, and for others a genuine
attempt to catch the latest and greatest of the
local scene, In The Pines is more importantly a
day where numerous bands offer their services
free to the one and only aural home of local
music, RTR, to raise money to aid in the
station’s survival.

In what is turning out to be some divine
occurrence, the gods managed to strip back
the layers of heavy cloud to shine some light

down on the damp grounds of Somerville, with

the place well and truly warm by the time The
Nordeens ignited the rock. The rougher side
to Showbag! front-fella Glenn Musto’s psyche,
The Nordeens are a product of a crush on the
emo-stylings of Dashboard Confessional and a
case of SARS — no, not that one. This is the
more serious case of severe aching romantic
heartbreak. While the sound problems didn’t
help the performance, The Nordeens managed
to convey their emotions as eloquently as the
distortion pedal allows.

Continuing the more raucous side of
the spectrum was Rhonda’s Organ. Still high
from a recent PJ Harvey support slot, this band
announced that In The Pines was going to be
their last gig for a while, then took the relaxed
punters through a maze of sometimes great,
sometimes a tad directionless loud, countrytainted
rock that only a cheap whiskey couldhelp decipher.

The band of the moment, Little Birdy
weren’t willing to treat this gig lightly, and it
showed. They came out, they conquered and
they left victorious. With front woman Katy
Steele bearing a Telecaster and those massive,
piercing vocals, she and her band dug straight
into the slow swagger of Beautiful, bearing the
music’s definite PJ Harvey influence, while
never losing their own sense of artistic identity
— broadcasted in the psychotic genetics of Too
Late. Not quite country, not quite avant-garde,
Little Birdy are treading territory that has the
potential to garner fans from quarters as
opposed as The Waifs, Patti Smith and The
Sleepy Jackson (of which the two leaders are
brother and sister). And with their highly
developed set almost perfected, it seems it
might not be too long until that happens.

It was now time for Glenn Musto (of the
aforementioned Nordeens) to display his more
composed musical emotions, along with his band of buddies Showbag!. Being one of the
first appearances of the new lineup (that
includes Adem K of Turnstyle fame and Jodie
Bartlett from Josivac), it seemed as much a
matter of trial and error as well as delivering
the songs that Perth audiences now know so
well. While songs like Never Get There and How
Much Would It Hurt retained their moody
charm, it certainly was a new, fuller sound that
was delivered — one that, while positive, is
going to need a bit more spirit injected into it
to bring it to its full potential.

One band that could only suffer from
the quiet nature of In The Pines was
Subtruck. Known for their throttling,
deafening tunes, hearing them physically belt
out music that you could still talk over exposed
a weaker side to one of WA’s stronger acts —
meaning number like Shotgun Time and Get
Thee A Helmet lost their usual brutality to the
mellow atmosphere of In The Pines.
No problems, as Tucker Bs knew how
to turn quiet into psychotic. Disturbing enough
in their priest outfits, the decade old Tucker Bs
took the audience for a stroll through the edgy
rock that is their lives, throwing out walls of
frantic guitar screams, followed by pretty
melody and then more noise. And how sweet it
was.

Beginning their set with an acoustic
performance, Spencer Tracy were keen to
prove just how grown up they are today. While
the dynamics of their acoustic set was suitably
sweet for the occasion, it was the electric
return of Changes that made the impact. With
a past that has always displayed an element of
musical naivety, along with youthful genius,
Spencer Tracy are slowly creating their own
skin that represents the rockier end of the
spectrum, away from their pop past, in tracks
like Disco King and Changes.

As two of the bigger local names of the
moment, The Panics and Ikey Mo both
experienced problems in translating their great
recorded material into convincing live shows
tonight, though Downsyde covered that hole
with a severe dose of colloquial hip hop —
bouncing through a set that culminated in their
current cross over hit El Questro.

And such was In The Pines for another
year.

•JULIAN TOMPKIN