Reviewed onWednesday July 6
Here’s the thing: some of us dorks have been waiting fucking lifetimes for a true Sydney musical scene to emerge. And not only to emerge, but to be nourished by audiences; for punters to follow the rise and fall of local bands with the same relish that takes hold of them when they gush about groups from America and the UK.
In that sense, Phantastic Ferniture’s performance at Newtown Social Club wasn’t just a gig – it was a victory lap, a rattling showcase of a sound that hasn’t been copied, or nicked, or dredged out of someone’s mate’s dad’s record collection. Phantastic Ferniture are a collective of supremely talented musicians, but their music is about much more than technical skill. It’s a pitch perfect balance between chaos and control – like a day of back burning in Hell, it’s all over the place, yet carefully so.
Although they might have been the headliners, Ferniture weren’t the only band that took the night by the throat. It would be condescending to trot out that hoary old cliché and suggest that Betty & Oswald are a “band on the rise” – after all, they have already risen. They are doing things that some groups take ten years and six albums to work up to, and they are doing it with ease, control and style. They might have swapped out gypsy folk rock for surf-punk stylings, but these guys have never once betrayed themselves in the process. They’re too smart for that. Too savvy. Too good.
Even the evening’s very first support, Suiix, had all the unbridled energy of a headline act. Playing music both letchy and luscious, they came across like a multi-car pile-up scored to the Drive soundtrack; all style and broken bones. Instrumental freak-outs teetered towards total collapse, but in a way that encouraged dance, rather than despair.
And dance people did. It might sound naff to suggest that spectators are creators – that audiences hold some essential power of their own – but it’s true. Packed in tight, breathing out so much hot air, the crowd heaved and applauded, swimming in good vibes. The night belonged to Phantastic Ferniture, and to Betty & Oswald, and to Suiix. But more than anything else, it was the crowd’s night, one of those blissful moments when a room full of strangers unites for a single, beautiful purpose: to celebrate their city, and its sound, and themselves.
