It was only a few weeks earlier, when Flashing Tablet broke the sound barrier at a party in the Rosemount, that I realised what a great room it could become. Being just down the road from Perth’s gig and indie club epicentre at Planet and encapsulating all the goodness of the olde pub environment, sweet Saturday gigs at the Rosemount looked to be the go, followed perhaps by a post-gig crawl down the hill.
This said, I can understand the atmospheric understatement of this opening night – this is, afterall, a somewhat quaint Irish pub sticking their neck out for all the right reasons. But I cannot forgive the overall bludgeoning of any help for the bands or their could-have-been followers in the form of dead silence between acts, no foldback for the bands and the sleep-inducing stage lighting.
And thus my comments of Burnside’s and Weathervane’s performances are pretty much clouded by irritation and lethargy.
Strolling in to the strains of Cement Mixer by the lads from Burnside, their surf pop and maybe Neptunes-inspired number swaying the small number of punters, I thought all might be in order. But as their set dawdled onwards with no real variation beyond guitar solos and mis-timed drumming, the presence of the fifteen watt globe on stage really started to affect us all in the worst possible way.
An hour of stone silence, even with repeated requests for any form of between band music was what Weathervane had to contend with. With their Carlton Hotel gig in March still quite fresh in my mind as an example of tight, southern US pop songsmithery, they could do absolutely nothing to stop the rot on this occasion. They were doing their pop by numbers, the word ‘tight’ taking on further leanings towards clinical and antiseptic, their ‘warmth’ being mistaken as pedestrian.
My apologies and sympathy must be extended to these bands while the venue’s skimping on resources must be highlighted. The Rosemount could well be a brilliant venue if they duly supply the basics contributing the atmosphere that everyone requires, a move which will see this Angove Street pub/club circuit a prerequisite night out.
Adam Connors
