Stephen asked for a review, so here it is, I don’t get out much these days, so forgive the length.
I think that The Handsome family are the most important band in music today.
They have taken a rich American folk & country tradition and mixed it with a punk d.i.y. ethos and a dark humour. Their songs are often simple narrative stories , sometimes rich in metaphor and sometimes downright odd. Fans of Nick Cave will be at home with them, but they do not possess his vitriol. And the landscape is less bleak. They are more subtle. They deal with murder, loss, fear, the unknown, isolation and love. With a smile.
They have kept this music alive and urgent, they write interesting songs that engage the listener & leave you feeling you have entered someone else’s world for a brief but lovely time.
In some ways, they remind me of Wire in the way they totally turned the standard song format inside out
Not only do they write these fantastic songs, but they deliver them with potency; Brett’s rich, resonant voice with Rennie adding, usually a sinister note. She plays cranky old women really well. The cranky sort that live in gingerbread houses & put children in ovens.
In their music is the ghost of Johnny Cash, Edgar Allan Poe & the League of Gentlemen, though they probably don’t know about Tubbs & co. Coming from Texas n’all.
They are constantly referred to as gothic. I don’t know what that means, but if it helps you orientate yourself, consider them gothic country.
But I get ahead of myself..
It was an odd night in Sydney, the world’s 2 biggest ocean liners, QE2 & Queen Mary 2 were in port and as Sydney loves a party, and really loves a firework display, these had been laid on. Getting the bus into the city, usually a 20 min. ride at off peak times suddenly became a tense “will we get there in time” anxiety inducing ride as we sat in peak time traffic jams with all of the people who’d decided to show up & celebrate these grand ships (I think that there is a segment of society who will just turn up to anything cos other people are going, perhaps they are frightened they will miss out, perhaps they find comfort in crowds, it’s my theory as to why the Rolling Stones still fill stadia, but I loose myself..).
Anyway, we get there in good time having alighted early & nipped round the back streets dodging grid locked cars full of passengers realizing that the fireworks start at 8.50 and it’s now 8.45 and they will only be able to hear the dull thud and smell the lovely gunpowder smell. Great night out! Well worth keeping the kids up on a school night. It seems there will be political repercussions, such is Sydney’s love for a night out at the harbor with fireworks. Set off a damp squib & you’re on the Catherine Wheel
It seems that the support act too were stuck in this congestion.
But we didn’t know that at this time.
So we wander down to gaze skywards & go ahh, but we are on the wrong side of the buildings, we get tiny hints of something better we will never see. Crimson glows, golden flashes…It’s stupid, so we return to the venue. They have a bar.
The venue, Sydney’s Basement, a famous establishment with a legacy of jazz. These days they cast their net much wider and the main source of income seems to be from the meals served on the dance floor. Not on the florr itself, but like one of those dinner venues you imagine Sinatra would have played in his younger days It’s got that cabaret feel to it. The poorer, non hungry patrons crowd round the back on a raised deck. It feels a bit like a pub, but has none of the advantages like draught beer at a reasonable price. Or somewhere to sit. Even leaning posts & places to stand your bottle of ale are few and far between. It’s not a commodious place at all. You stand at the back watching a lot of shaven headed arty blokes in thick rimmed specs with their stylishly retro lady friends eating well presented meals and drinking overpriced Brown’s Brothers Shiraz.
They do have great sound though.
And a clientele that makes me feel not too old.
And the range of beer is good, Coopers pale ale for me thanks. This is one of Australia’s finest, and the trick to enjoying it is to roll it prior to opening, thereby irritating the yeast to give it the cloudiness that a bottle fermented ale needs. Brett was on these. Good choice. I’m sure he had insider knowledge.
Bret & Rennie were at the door flogging their merchandise when we went in. I went over to say hello, they said hello back. He’s a big bloke. A bear of a man. She is elegant & I have no idea if her gingham skirt was worn with irony or not. She mentioned in the show that now she’s 40, like all women of 40, she has become “invisible“. She certainly hasn’t. She is a striking figure with a strong presence. She is also witty and has a great sense of irony. Very un-American. She is the lynch pin that holds the HF together, main lyric writer and organiser. ‘Tis she who answered my emails & posted out my cd’s.
As I said, they keep the d.iy. spirit up.
But I get ahead of myself.
The support, who raced through the city at snails pace, “Darling Downs”.
It takes a lot for a support to make an impression, but these 2 certainly did.
It seems they have a family tree; the Scientists and Died Pretty being former projects. Guitar by Kim Salmon, seen him before, he’s interesting, but never grabbed me. However the singer.. Ron Peno…Well as a couple they showed up wearing op-shop suits & ties. They looked like your bank manager in 1982 when you went in requesting your first overdraft. Their combined age would be close to 100yrs old.
Coincidentally, I have been listening to a lot of heritage American music through the Harry Smith project, Sugar Hill record etc, (all as a spin off from the HF it has to be said). The closest thing I have heard to this is Appalachian bluegrass. It was very emotive stuff.. Salmon played a loose expressive acoustic, the singer wailed like he meant it, he postured and contorted himself like an early Rod Stewart lite. More alarmingly, between songs and in an extended break to change a string, he was obviously talking to himself. And grimacing. And posturing. Even more alarmingly, at one point he seemed so involved in the song that he started fondling his nether regions and for a moment, there was palpable fear in the crowd that he was going to do an Iggy. How’s that for coq au vin!
He didn’t.
I am always impressed when you see an artist sing it like they means it. They were great and well worth turning up on time for, although I imagine were the singer were to perform in a shop doorway late at night he’s make some fag money or get moved along by the law. Probably best seen in a pub with an in-crowd.
A small break, more Coopers for the Divvey couple and on they came. I think a lot of the audience were suddenly surprised to find that the folks selling the cd’s, chatting at the bar, tuning the instruments were in fact the headline act.
I have heard a number of live recordings by the HF, and I urge you to check them out on the internet archive, sometimes they have a band, sometimes it’s just the two of them/ The duet is far and away best. Two’s company.. It seems that adding extras into the mix dampens the dynamic between this married couple.
Their studio stuff come heavily recommended by me too!
When you see the HF, you not only see a musical act, you see a marriage onstage. Some recordings have them bickering, carrying on petty squabbles that have run through the day, points being scored which later may lead to who knows what blow out, but not tonight. They were in good humour, charmed by the liners and in fact making strong references to it opening the show. Playful ribbing was method.
Brett got stuck into the Coopers, more of that later…
Spartan stage.
Brett on our left, on a nice big golden sunburst Semi and silver mac laptop for drum machine programmes - (probably the one they use at home to record on, as I said, it‘s a d.i.y project) Renee on Banjo, bass and that little keyboard you blow through a pipe. Not at the same time. They are very competent musicians.
The format was pretty standard. She’d tell a story, he’d jump in with some smartarse comment and they’d head off somewhere else, then they’d play a song.. Then the next cycle. It was great. She is so engaging. Stories about their families, places they have lived, news stories, it was lovely. Very intimate, and dare I say without wishing to sound patronizing, sweet. And an embarrassment about America’s situation in the world and the conflict it is generating.
The set list was well chosen, all of my favorites including so much wine & weightless again were there, as well as a few of the new ones (which are much more complex in structure than previous efforts, I think Brett bought a Jazz guitar chord book last year). Standout was “after we shot the grizzly” a simple story detailing the misadventures of an expedition, who due to a series of disasters are reduced one by one to the narrator. The humour is very black but the melody a jolly sing along. The audience were utterly rapt in this. They listened as if it they kids and were a scary book at bedtime. For many, it was the first time they had heard it & you could see the light going on. It was made extra ambient using samples of frogs & insects for the drum track.
Brett kept the Coopers flowing, lucky man, he wasn’t paying through the nose for it and at one point was berated by Rennie as he started rolling the bottle on the floor. She thought he had lost it by this point, he tried to explain, but like all good wives, she was having none of it “It’s only beer”. He gradually got tireder as the show went on, slouching, blowing his lips loosely, become more belligerent but never nasty. Yet his delivery & playing never faltered. He became funnier too. What a talent!!
They were on for about an hour and a half, told us e had to go at midnight cos it was a school day tomorrow.
I could have had another hour and a half.
They left us with a gentle version of Froggie Went A Courting, which Rennie confessed gave her nightmares as a kid after her parents would sing it to send her to sleep.
We didn’t go home with nightmares, but the traffic chaos was still happening.
If they come to town, don’t miss them, and support artists like this. Integrity deserves it.
So do you!
(Internet Archive) 
