Live Review: Deer Tick, Good Oak

Local roots rockers Good Oak have been relatively quiet of late - having to share guitarist Tom Busby with Busby Marou no doubt accounting for much of their low profile - but the six-piece don't seem rusty at all as they run through a lengthy and accomplished set of country-tinged numbers. Guitarist Stephen Ryan and Brett Gibson share vocal duties for much of the set - the pair even duetting on the soulful Provider, Gibson doing a solid job covering the 'female' role - with everyone pitching in for the band's big harmonies, which are a huge part of their charm. The mellow dignity of Fill My Cup is a highlight, as is a ramshackle rendition of Bruce Springsteen's Ain't Got You, and although they're constantly self-deprecating between songs the friends are clearly having a great time, which as usual proves infectious. 

Providence, Rhode Island rockers Deer Tick have shed a keyboard player in recent times and slimmed down to a four-piece, but it sure hasn't hurt their sound nor their confidence, frontman John McCauley entering the fray with a platter of sandwiches from backstage, which he distributes into the crowd. There's long been a duality to their aesthetic - one foot firmly in the rock'n'roll world with the other favouring more stripped-back, alt-country terrain - and they choose to start their first-ever Brisbane show by easing slowly into proceedings, the wiry McCauley offering up Sea Of Clouds and Card House from the mellower of their two recent self-titled efforts (which were sequenced to highlight the band's aforementioned twin identities). Mountainous drummer Dennis Ryan - who forms a rock-solid rhythm section with his half-brother Chris - takes vocal reins for the chilled Clownin Around and soon guitarist Ian O'Neil joins the action by taking the microphone for The Dream's In The Ditch. But it's firmly McCauley's show and as the setlist starts to veer into rockier territory he's completely in his element, pausing the driving barroom boogie of The Bump to insert a whistled segment of Slim Dusty's anthem A Pub With No Beer, before upping the ante even further with the driving southern rock of Easy.

There's plenty more diversity all the way through their fine set, the O'Neill-led Hope Is Big devolving into a jig, McCauley strangles notes from his guitar during the raucous Jumpstarting before giving his bassist a lengthy kiss on the lips after the sultry Baltimore Blues No 1. The crowd is getting more and more involved as the show progresses (and sobriety slips away), going wild when McCauley skulls a full beer without using his hands (long story) during the massive blues burnout at the climax of their Lightnin' Hopkins cover Bring Me My Shotgun, the set proper finishing with the beautifully restrained Only Love - apparently written during their inaugural Australian tour - seguing into a raucous rendition of Mange to bring it home, the band gathered around Ryan's drumkit as they end proceedings in a southern rock maelstrom that's equal parts frantic and genuine.

The crowd is ecstatic as the band wave and melt into the darkness, quickly coaxing them back for one last salvo that starts with McCauley commando-rolling back to centre stage before they reconnect with the sodden swing of These Old Shoes and the quiet melancholy of Ashamed, which devolves into a weirdly engaging off-kilter torch-song rendition of Joe Cocker's You Are So Beautiful to finish things off for good. It's so great to finally have this fine band roll through town, hopefully it won't be long between drinks 'til the next time.