The Silversound Vs The Cruel Sea
Light Of The Day and The Dark Of The Night
It was a beautiful Summer Day in Naarm on the 3rd of December.
The small gathering at The Brunnie Ballroom was no reflection on the wealth of musical talent here to entertain us.
With Shane O’Mara, Andrew Tanner, Leroy Cope and Stu Thomas, our ears and soul were in good hands.
Economics, the time of day, the unknown value of this 4 piece, all may have hindered a larger crowd.
Call it a supergroup if you like, call it some friends making sweet psychedelic, shifting sounds and you have The Silversound.
This 4 piece are a fuzzy, buzzy, grooving, beating psychedelic-tinged amalgam of talent. O’Mara kicked off the day on 12-String and then moved on to more electric things from there. With the sunshine beaming in from the skylight above the stage, Silversound shimmered along. Even with such a small crowd, people were moved to dance in the daylight.
This was a release gig for their EP FuzzBoxGirl. Their eponymous/debut came out in March and is one of my favourite records of 2023.
Let’s hope we get to hear more of them live in 2024.
The Cruel Sea is an indie/bar band that formed in Sydney in 1987 and released 6 records from 1990-2001. Tex Perkins had made his name with the infamous Beasts Of Bourbon and then joined The Cruel Sea while he was their lighting technician. This tale was rolled out by Tex on the night.
James Cruischank played guitar and keyboards with the band but he passed away in 2015. Filling his shoes tonight was the very talented Matt Walker. Dan Rumour on guitar, Ken Gormly doing his thing on bass and Jim Elliot holding the sticks. Tex dedicated the performance tonight to James.
The crowd remained seated most of the night with sporadic dancing in the aisles that was soon broken up by the dancing police.
The sound was good, but not great.
Yes, the fan base of The Cruel Sea is aging, but this band needs to be in a venue where people can move around and dance and have some fun.
The Honeymoon is over.
Keep your eyes open for another Silversound gig in 2024.