Shame.  Shame.  Shame.
I’ve never been so late with a review before.  Goddamn it.  Slap.  Slap.  Slap.  This gig (Decoder Ring) happened over a week ago.  Last Friday night.  Last last Friday night.  Rosemount Hotel.  Cosy venue.  Intimate atmosphere.  Annoyingly placed bar.  More…  Than…  One…  Week…  Ago… 
<< darn >> 
What the hell happened to me?  Why was I so freaking late?  What possible excuse could I hope to submit for such a disgraceful example of surplus tardiness?  What?  Why?  Which?  Where?  Could it have been the heller busy working week I’d suffered?  Maybe.  Perhaps the terribly pressing deadlines from other publications that had shunted this review to the bottom of my Priority Pile?  Mayhap.  What about all the good time gigglies and flowy-flowing alcohol that I’d pumped through my body on the night of the actual gig?  Had I managed to displace from my brain the actual occurrences of the evening?  Chances were high. 

Truth be told I just have one of those brains that tend to forget things.  Not everything.  Not where I live.  Not what my job is.  Not the mechanics of how to breathe.  No.  Just little things that have a tendency to act towards my detriment.  Friend’s birthday parties.  The whereabouts of my trousers.  The name of the lady I’ve woken up besides.  Those kinds of things.  Them.  And now to add to my Long Lengthy List of Absent-Mindedness I can affix this fresh piece of forgetfulness:  just plain neglecting to write a review on the recent Decoder Ring gig.  << shame >> 

So profuse apologies.  Copious pardons.  Multitudes of “It-won’t-happen-again-ever-ever-evers...“  To the bands.  To my editor.  To the hard-working peoples at the Rosemount Hotel.  But most importantly to You.  The reader.  For letting you down.  For depriving you of yet one more skerrick of information on this most colossal of information receptacles:  your friendly-neighbourhood-internet.

“What the hell was the gig like!?!?!” you scream in escalating frustration.  Well lay back dear reader and I’ll paint you a tale.  First up on the bill (or at least those who were on stage by the time I arrived) Expatriate.  I didn’t know anything juicy about these boys before I attended this event – beyond their being Sydney’s (self-styled) “purveyors of Dark Rock” – and I still don’t.  Their brand of arty-eighties-throw-back-rock never managed to grab me in a place that stuck.  << slip >>  In fact I initially had them pegged as a Cure cover band – until I realised I didn’t recognise any of the tunes.  << ouch >>  “Cure crossed with the Killers…” opined another punter in my general direction.  Regrettably for Expatriate it wasn’t a complimentary comparison.  But they shouldn’t take that to heart.  I’m sure they’ll do just fine with the retro-phile Triple J crowd.

What the bulk of the expectant throng were really there for though was that other Sydney-based gaggle – Decoder Ring – touring on the back of their excellent new release ‘Fractions’.   And quite a throng it was too.  The venue not so chockers as the recent Spoon gig but all the same – a great turnout for a local (Australian) act.  Most no doubt persuaded along by the success of Decoder Ring’s recent soundtrack work for the movie multi-AFI winning Somersault.  But whatever the reason – they’d shelled out their money.  They’d bought themselves a bevvie.  They were supporting local artists.  And most importantly of all – they were THERE.  I myself tagging along less for the band itself (per se) and more for their cuter-than-a-button vocalist Lenka Kripac.  To see.  To watch.  To stalk.  Perhaps even to proffer a heart-felt/lovelorn proposal of devoted matrimony – should the opportunity arise.  Should God, The Stars and Cupid As One be on my side.  I decided to play it by ear.

Anyways.  There was a nice stylistic set-up going on – a bunch of old film-projectors casting varied moving images on to a screen behind the band (all six members – crammed up tight on that cosy Rosie stage).  A pleasant touch – mirroring the lush/filmic/expansive quality that’s grown in Decoder Ring’s sound along with their recent filmic experiences.  They create very visual sounds.  Expressive luxuriant soundscapes that evoke a real sense of feeling and mood.

For those expecting more of that soft dreamy Somersault-type of sound I’d like to think they received a pleasurable little treat or two.  The live Decoder Ring (indeed the Decoder Ring from their two albums proper) bopping along at a far more frenetic pace than that heard on their film score.  Producing not just music you could pleasantly sway to – but some moments of sheer kick-ass-ery the appreciative crowd were more than happy to rock out to.  At times generating a far harder guitar sound than you’d expect (particularly if you’d never heard their self-titled debut) Decoder Ring managed to be both varied in their sounds – and unpredictable.  NO surprises however when the Somersault theme song eventually got a banging (there may have been an impromptu lynching party had they neglected it).  AND as a special treat for me – Lenka’s gorgeous breathy voice sent pleasing little tremors up the knobbles, bumps and contours of my spine.  They closed with the title song off their Fractions release (providing more Lenka-inspired goodness for me) and a thrashy-almost-metal number from their first album (whose name eludes me – as I never quite got around to looking at my CD cover) – that had the more brash members of the audience head-banging away like the Bogan’s at a Ninety’s Blue Light.  Brilliant. 

Great night.  Great gig.  If I’d only remembered to ask the lovely Lenka to marry me.  But I have this damn feeble forgetful brain you see.  Now what was that we were talking about…?

Peace Out.

By Heronimous Wang