Reviewed onSunday April 10
It was a Beat The Clock version of Custard that played Newtown Social Club on Sunday night. Bassist Paul Medew had to leave for a flight at 8:45pm sharp, so the band delivered as close to a tight hour as Custard can get, with new songs, classics and covers of Split Enz and Jonathan Richman delivered with verve. While the show lacked the loose, hang-out vibe that manifests in the best of the band’s shows, the night’s numerous high points were evidence of how reliably fun the 25-plus-year-old group still is.
The fresh Dick Picks opened with their first gig in a proper venue. They are either a part of the first wave of bands directly inspired by Courtney Barnett, or the victim a new wave of sexist, lazy journalism that says any slacker indie band fronted by a woman is indebted to Courtney Barnett. Regardless, their sexually frank lyrics and easy-going playing charmed.
With a proper deadline to hit, Custard were all professionalism… for about half a song, until Dave McCormack set up a solo by shouting out for lead guitarist Matthew Strong, only for Strong to pump his fists in the air to the ongoing crowd’s roar for the entirety of the solo section, with no solo ever arriving. As much as Custard didn’t have time to dick around, their rare playful energy is embedded in their DNA, and it’s one of the main contributing factors that has earned them their loyal fan base.
It’s that fan base that gave their post-reformation material as warm a reception as their acknowledged classics. It’s why they could ask the audience members out of thin air to film ‘1990’s’ and send them the footage for an off-the-cuff crowd-sourced video, and they comply no question. It’s why the people in the toilet queue after the gig could sing, in turns, each line from ‘Music Is Crap’ until the song was complete. Loyalty like that is earned, and while they may have been rushed on Sunday, when Custard play Sydney again they’ll no doubt have a mass of bodies to play to, who will dance and shout along with every word, and comment afterwards that it still “wasn’t long enough”, no matter how long they play.
