But... it's not Jazz!

The Charlie Parkers and Modern Life
The Spectrum
Wednesday July 18

After completely missing the first act due to their early start and my tardy behaviour I settled in to watch the substitute support act while Modern Life tuned up. She was small, blond and wearing the highest black stilettos I’ve ever seen. She was also quite clearly hammered!

Just before starting, singer Charlie Smith came on stage and slid the drums slightly to the left, drummer Michael was clearly unimpressed and the set start time was delayed slightly be the rearranging of the drums so he could comfortably sit behind them and play. But all was well with the world because they started with ‘Daffodils’ and moved rapidly onto they own theme song ‘Modern Life’. With the progression of the set I was starting to think they sounded a bit like Duran Duran and Roxy Music, with Michael Hutchins’ brother on vocals (the hair, the low cut t-shirt and the moves), then they played a cover of ‘Love is a Drug’ by Brian Ferry. All became clear, they do sound like Roxy Music. There was plenty of interaction with the small crowd when it was revealed that Charlie knew the blond girl and for a brief moment the show became strictly adults only. They played ‘Sensation’ and ‘Without a Trace’ to close the set, then came back when asked, to wrap up with ‘Monkey’ when it was clear that not all of the headliners had arrived yet.

Watching the complete change of set left me thinking how much harder the drummer has it than everyone else. It took Dug, the aforementioned hard done by, drummer of The Charlie Parkers ten minutes to set his kit up and then another five to sound check. The keys and guitarists all took about two minutes to do both.

They started their set on-time with the rocking guitar riff of ‘Venus’ which had everyone in the now greatly expanded crowd, dancing. As the set continued with guitar heavy ‘Katie’ and the synthesiser dominated ‘Step Back Forward’ the temperature in the room rose as the dancing continued. Bass player, Eben, maintained the look of the cool bass player, even when a change of pace in the middle of the set saw the girls in the audience getting a good look at lead singer Jason’s bare shoulders as he removed his shirt and switched to an acoustic guitar for the slower ‘Something Wry’.

With barely a hint of jazz influence and more Kaiser Chiefs and Powderfinger showing through they played ‘Blackheart’ and ‘Dr Zeus’, a song aimed at having a go at the pharmaceuticals companies, but even with that announcement the enthusiasm of the crowd never waned. The multi tasking Joel switched with ease between his guitar and keyboards, all the time keeping up with the backing vocals. The music rapped up with ‘Just a Kiss’. Oddly enough, despite the requests and shouting, they played no encore. They did however, spend a large amount of time with the fans who stayed behind. Which is best, encore or time cultivating fans? I’m guessing by the queues of people being greeted with smiles and claps on the back, the cultivation of fans is all part of the fun for the Charlie Parkers and sod the encore after a twelve song set.
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Had this one brewing for a while. Went out with the girls the other night and wasn't gonna review, but though that I should even though I missed the first act. Gotta keep in practice never know when The Brag will call and send me somewhere ;-)