Fargo, Spargo, Embargo

Spargo with Dead Letter Chorus and John Columbus
The Hopetoun Hotel, Surry Hills
Thursday July 26

As the five-piece John Columbus started to play their Dylan and Radiohead inspired songs I was forced to ask myself why are three of them wearing hats. There was bowler on the bass player, a cloth cap on the guitar player and what can only be described as JR Hartley inspired trilby hat seated neatly on the noggin of the keys. Despite the odd number of head adornments the sound coming from the stage bathed the audience in a cross between The Animals and Nick Cave, if he were on anti depressants. With titles like ‘Einstein’, ‘The Toll’, ‘Supermarket’ and ‘Absolutely Frozen’ I was left with a feeling that the next time I see these guys they would be topping the bill.

- JR Hartley on Keys aka Ben for John Columbus

Next up were Brisbane based Dead Letter Chorus. After a heavy week of gigs, Cameron, lead singer was feeling the effects of too much of a good thing. His voice was croaky and he had to rely on Gaby, the only girl in the purple crinoline dress and multi-taskier (singing, keys and guitar) to fill in the gaps. To be fair, if he hadn’t of said anything, the crowd would never have known he was suffering. Their set included ‘Magnolia’ and ‘Laces’ which sounded a bit like Counting Crows and Jewel, but guitarist Matt seemed to be jamming in an entirely different band, Rolling Stones maybe. The second to last song was ‘Misery’ which saw Gaby on stage alone with her guitar while the rest of them stood on the sidelines and watched as she suffered just what she was singing about. Don’t leave her there alone guys, give her some support so you can keep up the good work.

- Gaby from Dead Letter Chorus

The evening started with so mush promise and kept on giving. The five lads from Melbourne that call themselves Spargo arrived on stage just after ten thirty. Most of the crowd that had gathered for Dead Letter Chorus started to drift away by the end of their first song of the evening ‘Jack the Blacksmith’, and in the words of Lachlan, the lead singer ‘better a small but appreciative crowd, than a massive disinterested one.’ They continued though their country music inspired set to a new song called ‘Ballad of a Young Married Man’ that made Rawhide and 19 spring to mind, but you know what, it was fun, toe tapping stuff that made you want to dance.

- Spargo.

It was one of the few times I actually thought to myself, these guys are having fun, they enjoy being on stage even if they only get a couple of hours sleep, if any before getting on a plane at 6am. That feeling of joy is infectious and so are the songs they play, maybe because they talk to the audience, maybe because they are just really good and maybe because at the end of each song guitarist Andy said into the mike, in his best Elvis voice, ‘thank you very much’. ‘Loverman’, ‘Live and Learn’ and ‘Sweet Therese’, despite having a distinct blues/country feel inspire you to sing along even if you don’t know the words. These are songs you’d have on you iPod for strolling, relaxing and running and that’s hard to achieve.

- Dancing the night away

The last song on the evening was a cover of the Johnny Cash classic Folsom Prison Blues. They asked everyone to dance and feel the beat, and you know what they did. The folks of Surry Hills got down and bopped along like I have never seen before, they stopped talking and danced. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a few Stetsons and a cry of Yee hah! The small crowd was indeed, appreciative.