Monday, January 21, 2008

A pretty good cover band

I'd venture that they're even better than the Sharkadelics. Richard Thompson brought his show to the Orange Peel last night. I missed most of the first half thanks to a neverending Feral Chihuahuas rehersal. The second half of the show was pretty awesome, a few early jazz standards, some good falsetto singing on an Abba song "Money, Money, Money". What got me the most was him playing both the lead and bass parts on rock songs.
Near the end he played two songs close to the bastard - "Friday on my Mind" by the Easybeats (a band Joe Orton once suspected were brought to the UK for the Beatles sexual pleasure). The Easybeats were a real jumping-off point for Australian music in the 70s and 80s, Henry Vanda and George Young went on to produce a slew of great acts (one you may have heard of is George's two brothers Angus and Malcolm in a little group called AC/DC).
The other really odd inclusion was "Everyone's Got To Learn Sometime" by the Korgis. It was a hit in Australia in the early 80s, but I think mostly because K-Tel marketed the hell out of it. If you were an insomniac pre-teen you saw the ad for "Dumb Waiters" at least 20 times a night.
Good show...

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