Live Review: Lee Ranaldo Band, Pony Face

Melbourne's Pony Face open the evening and prove to be just as enigmatic and hard to pin down as they sound on record. The trio operate in the realm of dark atmospheric rock and show they have a great handle on space and dynamics with songs that work up often gentle and sometimes frantic moods. Their bassist is fascinating to watch as he ducks and bobs with mouth agape and eyes half drawn, while their set shows a real balance with each member indispensable to the music they are playing. Their closing track, Disco Cops, is a fantastic heavy groover that recalls the short-lived Mad Season from the '90s.

Lee Ranaldo surprised a few people with the accessibility of his recent solo record Between The Times And The Tides, such was the standard song form and lack of experimentalism. Taking those songs into the live format and including Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley suggested that it might end up sounding like a Sonic Youth show sans the wild sounds and deconstructed noise aspects. To an extent this was true, but Ranaldo exceeds expectations by throwing in a few covers (Talking Heads' Thank You For Sending Me An Angel and a brilliant rendition of Neil Young's Revolution Blues) and a couple of older Sonic Youth tracks including Karenology. With Shelley in fine form, the quartet add a rough-hewn edge to the studio renditions of Ranaldo's songs and it is the tension that comes from their interplay that makes it such a great set. They play pretty much all of Between The Times And The Tides, with Xtina As I Knew Her, the dynamic variations of Fire Island (Phases) and the dreamy drift of the rarely played Stranded particular highlights. The show strengthens the case for Ranaldo, not just as a guitarist but a fine songwriter too.