Sonically, Mere Women is perhaps the most challenging band on the Poison City roster. Bass-less and driven by synthesizer and reverb vocals, the Brisbane trio provides songs from their lauded record Your Town and offers an early delight.
There’s a fragility to Toy Boats that keeps their music on edge and forever captivating. Backed by a full band, Hugo Costin’s vocal range is complimented with fuller instrumentation. Now with a full album of material, he has the luxury of cherry picking his setlist.
Riding high on the success of their debut album I Don’t Want To Be Anywhere But Here from April, Ceres draws a large and loyal crowd. Singer Tom Lanyon’s self-depreciating stage banter, be it out of nervousness or otherwise, is unnecessary. His band’s songs are consistently strong and don’t need be thought of otherwise.
Veterans of the scene despite having released just one album, Fear Like Us this year celebrate ten years as a band. Now with three guitarists, their sound has shifted away from the sing along, fist pumping choruses and is replaced with, what at times sounds like a hardcore band with an acoustic guitar.
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Hoodlum Shouts offer moody Australian inspired story telling in a similar vain to The Drones, but soon get outshone by Harmony. Hauntingly beautiful, their set is the pick of the weekend and catches many unsuspecting punters off guard. Tom Lyncolgn delivers spoken-word like poetry over shredding jazz chords and if it didn’t already sound like the twisted soundtrack to a Mad Max film, his use of a hunting knife scraped across his guitar in a drone of feedback all but confirms it.
Arguably, The Smith Street Band’s Wil Wagner has single handedly taken Poison City Records from a small Fitzroy operation to an internationally respected label. His set teases with new Smith Street Band songs including Something I Can Hold In My Hands, Surrender and Calgary Girls, along with a mixture of solo material. Wall to wall, the capacity crowd sing along to each cleverly crafted phrase and hang on each of his words with baited breath. With a national solo tour just around the corner and dates in major cities sold out, he continues to enhance his reputation as a singer/songwriter on the rise.
Gravitating further away from the punk sound that initially defined the label, Lincoln LeFevre And The Insiders close the night with a healthy slab of folk inspired rock and roll. On And On is a standout and while not in the same league as Wagner, LeFevre who is largely known for his production work on releases from Luca Brasi, Jamie Hay and Wagner himself, is now deservedly in the limelight. As the crowd congregate one last time for an all in sing along, it seems a fitting way to end the Weekender.
