Live Review: Bitch Prefect, Sarah Mary Chadwick, Raw Prawn, Convent

Tucked away in the industrial precinct of Marrickville, The Red Rattler has a knack for putting on nights dedicated to fringe artists, along with being one of the few venues unique for having a bar run by volunteers and a five-year environmental sustainability plan. The organisers of the night's gig managed to snag a talented bunch that featured Convent first up, made up of three of the girls from Village Of The Damned, who have grown up to form an ensemble that takes inspiration from the book of Naked On The Vague. Although their set suffered somewhat from a lack of, um, rehearsal, there was something way cool about their nonchalant take on monotone, three-chord music.

Raw Prawn provided the audience, which was sizeable by the time they hit the stage, with fast garage-punk, downward playing suburban drawl. Made up of other local acts (one of which is Holy Balm), their anti-pop wouldn't have been as ironic if it wasn't so catchy. I Like It was a standout moment and it was only a few songs into the set that they got the people up the front dancing and attracted some serious nodding from the people up the back.

Sarah Mary Chadwick's performance, the score to the most sorrowful breakup ever, was memorable not only because she looked pretty lonely on the stage with nothing but her Strat and voice for company, but also because the scattered audience didn't seem to be paying her much attention either. This lent itself to some very poignant moments and despite the talk going on, there were a few people taking note as she swept through songs off her latest album, Eating For Two, telling stories of loneliness and heartache washed down with a shot of melancholy.

The crowd ran for the stage as Bitch Prefect started playing without warning. The distinct Aussie barbeque-punk sound of the three lads from Adelaide is a reminder that despite being broke and disenchanted and unemployed, you can still have fun, and it's okay to be upbeat despite being down. Their sense of fun and cynicism on display, the band's simple setup showed they have that intangible something that lots of bands, despite having good tunes, lack. Despite some lax guitar tuning for the closing song (I believe it was Bad Decisions) put a dampener on the set, it somehow added to their overall charm on the night and showed that you can fuck up but things will still be okay.