Live Review: Twerps, Kitchens Floor

Entering the alleyway beside Metro Arts for another installment of the Out The Back series courtesy of Brisbane Festival, it's clear that this venue is a new milestone for Brisbane live music. From the bulbous, amorphous installations hanging from some walls and some black-painted appliance noir embedded into another, the reasonably priced beverages and the open air stage, the mild Spring evening is set up for something truly memorable.

Kicking off proceedings is Kitchens Floor, who are fleshed out into the four-piece tonight courtesy of Cured Pink's Andrew McLellan. After stints of acoustic fare in the past twelve months, Matt Kennedy eschews the quieter moments entirely for a full-tilt re-entry into the kitchen sink despair of his desolate tunes. Opening up with No Love, the band are at their off-kilter best, Kennedy's atonal drawl perfectly matched by the dissonance and affected disdain. Newer tracks Down and Bitter Defeat are early highlights, but the band rip through 116, Twenty-Four, Graves and Regrets with a controlled urgency. The songs all sound great, although McLellan's organ is lost in the mix for the most part, which is a shame since his recorded additions add even further depths.

It's a long gap between sets, but after a lot of great soul, funk and punk vinyl is slung about courtesy of Earl Grey, it's time for the Melbourne wunderkinds Twerps to take the floor. Marty Frawley beckons the crowd in closer, which they do willingly. Frawley and co-anchor Julia MacFarlane are an unassuming duo, and whilst her guitar is a light addition under the heft of Frawley's sounds tonight she takes command of songs like This Guy without even trying. Everything is tied effortlessly together by the metronomic styles of Pat O'Neill and Rick Milovanovic. Unfortunately the band struggles with the occasional technical difficulty, which seems to put them off at times, Frawley in particular feeling pressed to apologise. There is no need; their set is brimming with jagged pop gems that are too infrequent in this day and age. New track He's In Stock offers a straighter, punchier riff on their Dunedin idols, whilst Coast To Coast is so good that some punters ask for it to be played twice. Staple Dreamin resonates, before the languid Jam Song washes over the crowd. The charm that emanates from these songs comes from their lack of self-consciousness; instead they float away on their own melodies, in the process taking everyone with them.