Live Review: Shining Bird, Solid Effort

When you're trying to invoke the spirit of this place, it's proven hard to get the balance right.

For every Triffids gaze through the heat haze, there's some goose who should be hit over the head with the synth-linked didgeridoo they think makes their song 'Australian'. Shining Bird come from a slightly different viewpoint — songs of the Illawarra's coast, able to put it on record — but what of delivering those vistas live?

Solid Effort are from roughly the same locale, but their music is from another time and place. They are endearingly nervous, and hold their guitars a bit too high. A touch of The Go-Betweens, but — by accident or design — played at Minutemen speed. They're like a post-punk band: angular — if I hadn't stopped using that word in around 1997. They even celebrate The Ballad Of Bulli in song — no mean feat.

Wildflowers are affixed to mic stands. For the purposes of this single launch tour, Shining Bird is up to a sprawling eight-piece. After acknowledgement of the area's traditional owners, they bravely open with arguably their best song, the rich and rolling croon of Rivermouth.

Singer Dane Taylor is alternately open then overwhelmed by the crowd they now draw. Or left ducking as Alistair Webster slinks and strangles his guitar — who goes from raincoat, to suit coat, to shirt, to shirtless in about three songs. Their racket is sweeping, a respectful cover of Echo & The Bunnymen's The Killing Moon also hinting to their influences.

They maybe overreach and overjam occasionally, but there's worse crimes. New single, Helluva Lot is duly trotted out, its 'Australicana' feeling even more overt, and a stretched encore of Distant Dreaming sees them out. Shining Bird are maybe still finding a level and a space, but they're worth further observation.