SaskwatchOn Saturday night this reviewer had a restaurant meal of dried anchovies, peanuts, slices of cucumber, rice and a fried chicken leg all on the same plate. Weirdest meal ever. After that there was a strange dream about dead snakes. In between these two things this gig at the Curtin went down.
With Saskwatch about to head to Glastonbury, tonight's gig was a hot ticket, selling out hours in advance. They launched a campaign on Pozible a few weeks ago and were celebrating having just hit their target, and there was anticipation spilling from the overstuffed crowd for the gig, but a totally up-for-it capacity audience couldn't make up for a strange lack of that soul feeling.
A good soul band deserves great acoustics and decent sound, but a hissy top end that sounds like eating chips overwhelms the sound of Money For Rope as we walk up the stairs that intersect the bandroom. The place is already jam packed so we shimmy over to a sofa at the back – the Curtin's highlight feature – which thankfully have the effect of absorbing some of the excessive volume. The downside is a peripheral experience of this Doorsy garage rock band that are apparently pretty good, albeit an odd choice for a Saskwatch support.
Technically, Saskwatch cannot be faulted. The murky mix can't hide the fact that this band contain some of the most technically proficient musicians in town. But tonight feels soulless. Maybe it is just the wrong venue, despite the band waxing lyrical about how great it is. A band as clean as this needs somewhere you can hear them well. Nkechi Anele's vocals are almost too big for the space, and their sound definitely is – they even bust the power halfway through the gig. They are clearly putting their back into it, playing big song after song from their debut record, but moving around the room we just can't find a sweet spot anywhere. The hipsters down the front are dancing but really, the dead snake dream was better.
