Live Review: Shining Bird, Solid Effort, SM Jenkins

Listening to SM Jenkins, you can't help hearing Pavement (the band's name actually refers to Stephen Malkmus' pseudonym from Wowee Zowee, natch). Their set was a durgy, grunting packhorse loaded with '90s references, and the only thing that sounded askew was band leader Steve Bourke's (Step-Panther) vocal style. The shabby nature of garage music encourages atonal singing, but the melodic groove of grunge and its offspring (SM Jenkins being such a descendent) needs a vocalist to match. Good set, though, with a strong backbone courtesy of a brutish yet oddly graceful rhythm section.

Wollongong collective Solid Effort were less than appealing, with the set feeling a little loose and haphazard. It wasn't the tonal shifts; that's part of their appeal. They're a versatile band, and their grip on several genres is tight. They moved from art rock to punk to psychedelic noise pretty easily. As a unit they fell short. There were passages that shifted into, what should have been, airtight pockets of punk, but band personnel were a little out of sync, and it sounded sloppy.

Shining Bird are an eclectic bunch. Bushy chin straps, weird bowl cuts, the baritone straight man out front, the little guy out back - if nothing else it's fun to watch them interact. Direct from a wind-blown set over the weekend at Newtown Fest, the group are pimping their new album, Black Opal. It was, overall, a good show, despite drifting off into self-indulgence more than once. They laid the atmosphere on thick, and, like their ancestors (ICEHOUSE, The Church et al), they tapped into Australia's haunting vastness, creating what seemed like a cavernous space inside a tiny band room. A nice cover of Echo & The Bunnymen's The Killing Moon felt right at home, and they brought it to a close with a decadent flourish.