Live Review: Nantes & Battleships

As the Easter Bunny prepared to ravage Perth, so too did Sydney indie rock band Nantes on Saturday night at the Amplifier Bar. Disappointing would sum up the evening in one word. Although the accuracy to their recent album, Beingsbeing, was pretty much in tow, Nantes were let down by their sound guy who needed to learn to tame volume levels; it was too loud to comfortably bear. The evening commenced with Perth locals Rainy Day Women playing their usual summery tunes and jiving along to the sweetness of their Bob Dylan-inspired music. The promising shoeless lads always seem graciously happy to perform no matter the size of the audience, which was dismal.

Battleships, similarly hailing from that city afar, Sydney, also performed to a minute crowd - but with a grand sound. It was a pity more persons weren't there to appreciate the falcetto goodness of lead man Jordan Surdee. The energy dispensed by the band was total, as many of their recent triple j air time numbers streamed upon the meek onlookers. Dan McMurray, drummer, delivers the punch the band requires - without him each ditty would be lacking in intensity, particularly the single, Retrospect, where McMurray's brilliant tom-wrangling skill builds into a killer strong-willed guitar solo from lead guitarist Nato Hannaford. The unlikely looking fellows for indie rock exhibited alluring and ghostly melodies that soared into the abyss and captivated the audience.

Four-piece headliners Nantes were where the downfall occurred. Dressed all in black and looking more like they should be across the Horseshoe Bridge at Runways ready to lay some heavy metal slashing, their appearance was echoed in the volume of their music. In saying this, the performance was not a total disaster. Opening on Fly (a well-known number) lead vocalist David Rogers sang, in his robust tones, “it'll be all right my friend”, into a moderate-sized group of punters who were dancing happily towards the stage. The chanting vocals for the bridge had a high sense of participation from the start and on the conclusion of the song a loud applause of appreciation was heard. “We are more than excited to be here with you fine people,” said Rogers, “we just released our debut album and we are going to play some songs from that record.”

The loudness continued and amplified the messy guitar; simply too loud, too much reverb and not enough good music, although some would say it was worth it to simply see the insane dirty mo that guitarist Josiah Eastwood was sporting. The crowd did happily dance just in front of the stage but to be honest not much attention was being paid to the band. You could see multiple people standing with hands over ears to try and suppress the levels; many gave up and there were fewer spectators at the end than they'd started with. The reverb sounds of Drones, first track from their LP, Alice, and current single, Avid, were highlights of the set. They each exhibited the sliding synth parts, vast, bulky, layered vocals and generally great stoner-style music. It was a frustrating evening for those who were hoping to hear the developing sound from a promising band, but all fell short.