Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Papa vs Pretty and Last Dinosaurs

Transit Bar hosted three young all male bands with bucket-loads of talent last Thursday night. 

First cab off the rank was local four-piece Hancock Basement who did an excellent job at warming the crowd up with their songs 'One in a million' and 'Things will get better'. They have been playing solidly in the Canberra scene for the last few years, building a fan base who were there to hear their tunes. I especially liked the songs they introduced as 'new' which showed more depth and musical diversity than their previous EP. 

The crowd was made up of short haired girls and long-haired boys who had a young, friendly vibe. Needing only tiny encouragement from the Last Dinosaurs to move towards the stage and energetic dancing began and didn't stop all night. 

The Last Dinosaurs didn't look like I had imagined from their music. The pint sized musicians looked like they had come straight from Hobbiton. The lead singer Sean Caskey didn't have a ring, but a large marble tied around his neck completing the Frodo comparison. Their music was rougher and faster live than their recorded stuff, and their single 'Honolulu' sounded vastly different from the radio version. They also played very catchy tunes like 'Can't Decide' and 'Time and Place', all clearly loved by the crowd. 
Closing out the night was Papa vs Pretty who were my favourite band of the show. Hailing from Sydney, driven by nineteen-year-old Thomas Rawle, the three-piece created some seriously punchy live music. Producing such a diverse range of songs, from hard and fast 'Wrecking Ball' to slow and lovely 'Heavy Harm' showed a level of music maturity well beyond their years.

 Drummer Tom Myers played bare-chested for most of the set, understandable given the room temperature and how hard he was hitting the drums. When current single 'One of the Animals' started the audience took their advice and went crazy, singing along and jumping around. The boys looked genuinely chuffed that people knew the words and all three had huge smiles plastered on their faces.


I was impressed with the humble and generous nature of all the bands, inviting everyone to stick around and have a drink with them after the gig, an un-common invitation in the often cooler-than-thou music scene. 

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