Fine and Dandy | written by DJ3Chord

It is just dandy when the day before you leap the ditch for a weekend in Melbourne you discover they are playing and yes, there are still a few tickets left! Even dandier when Tram 96 rattles up Bourke St and pulls up directly outside the door of the Palace Theatre. What a magnificent venue, three tiered, cavernous…packed to the bleachers with Melbemians!

The special guest spot was assigned to Brisbane based Los Huevos, an instrumental outfit that play souped up surf tunes. The bane of all support bands at larger gigs is being crammed to the side of the stage and only a fraction of the desk…so in the larger venue the sound was a bit muddy but generally they stood up. For me, these guys really need vocals as beyond a few tunes they started to sound a bit samey. However, they went to town on the last one leaving the crowd pumped for intermission and top-up. Time for some “fresh air” on the balcony and a young man asked me to “help him out”…hmmm…my excuse was that it was seized at the border, all in good humour of course.

So, time to Be-in, the opener sets the scene…ethereal guitar/vocals, boom-boom-chic, candy floss keys…yummy. The Dandies have that elusive something, YEAH…psych rock…but with that tongue-in-cheek pop nuance and a few countriesque ballads, groovy…POP ART!!!

When Taylor-Taylor mimics Lou Reed you can just imagine Andy quiffing and quaffing and when they have a song called Lou Weed, you know where I’m coming from. A quarter way through and they hit The Last High and you really know where I’m coming from! Courtney (isn’t that a girls name?) didn’t seem to move an inch for the whole twenty-six odd songs, Adonis in a muscle-shirt, contrapposto, gat super-glued to the hip…some may say yummy.

There were a couple of freshies not yet released with The Wow Signal sounding very promising indeed. Essentially, this was a best of from all the albums and the crowd knew them. Even beyond the hits from Welcome to the Monkey House, every song was greeted with whoops and sing-a-longs (especially in Taylor-Taylor’s solo version of Everyday Should Be a Holiday).

From then the gears changed up, kicked into space by (You Come In) Burned. Peter Holmström’s skull ridden guitar was increasingly sonorous as he layered the effects. Fanta pants Zia McCabe started hitting the tambourine harder (on her butt), jiggling just a little bit more. De Bour’s fro grew another few inches (or was that the wafts of smoke around him?)…burning rubber anyone?

The last bunch, Bohemian Like You, Godless (without the trumpets, they were in my head), Get Off, Pete International Airport, Boys Better, they were all in my HEAD! The full-stop came with Country Leaver, anyway, if they had encored with Genius, I would’ve cried my way home.

Oh, crisp winter Melbourne, with your dewy streets, muddy river, stadiums and footy fans, rustic charm, modernist bent, fine art and cuisine…all VERY COOL indeed!

More Melbourne news at newsblaze.com.au.