Reviewed onSaturday March 12 (photo by Ashley Mar)
Yet again, one finds oneself asking the age-old question: what’s in a name? Tonight’s headliners, after all, pulled theirs from a post-it note reminder on the fridge. There’s something both clumsy and clunky, however, about a name like Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. It’s a recent name change from merely Rolling Blackouts, but the new name inadvertently suits them better: it doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, it doesn’t quite make sense and it’s not particularly memorable.
The Melbourne natives’ brand of self-described “tough pop” might have a pinch of Go-Betweens brightness to it, but the quintet sleep on solid song structure and a discernible hook. It says a lot that no-one comes away from watching the band play with a greater appreciation for its still-blossoming original material, but rather a rekindled flame for the choice of cover – Split Enz’s ‘Six Months In A Leaky Boat’.
As the Spectrum Now festival-of-sorts concludes, it’s all too apparent that it’s been less Spectrum Now and more Spectrum ‘When Was That Again?’ as far as crowds are concerned. Tonight, alas, is no exception, with thinly spread attendees just barely covering the Big Top’s diameter. Still, this is Something For Kate we’re talking about here. Even in the face of a dodgy sound system and a disappointing turnout, they’ll still put on a thoroughly entertaining show.
With no new record, the trio are free to pick and choose from their discography as they see fit. This leads to surprise entries (‘You Only Hide’), underrated cuts (‘Beautiful Sharks’) and a fistful of beloved staples (‘Monsters’, ‘Déjà Vu’, ‘Three Dimensions’). The set is arranged smartly, with slower and quieter moments of introspection building to more highly emotive numbers. Hell, this is a band that more or less wrote the book on both, as far as contemporary Australian music is concerned – if anyone can pull it off, it’s Something For Kate.
The night ends with two completely unexpected covers – Hazel’s ‘Truly’ and R.E.M.’s ‘The One I Love’ – as well as what many consider to be the band’s finest six minutes, ‘Pinstripe’. It’s a hell of a way to send the crowd packing, and definitively answers yet another age-old question: if a tree falls in the middle of The Domain and no-one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
