Does It Offend You, Yeah? at Oxford Art Factory

DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH?
GRAFTON PRIMARY
THE E.L.F.
Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst
01/10/08

Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see the appeal of watching a scruffy bloke standing behind a laptop and singing over grating dance music. However, despite having the charisma of a bad wedding DJ, Gerling’s Darren Cross, aka The E.L.F. sure got the kids in the Van She T-shirts dancing. Still, if you’re a Van She fan, you’ll dance to pretty much anything.

Local weirdos Grafton Primary (below) were far more pleasing on the eye and ear. Singer Joshua Garden danced like a spasming robot in a pork pie hat, neckerchief, sleeveless shirt and eyeliner, while his brother Benjamin played some serious keytar and bravely opted for the T-shirt and tie combination. Their deliciously 80s electro was Depeche Mode meets The Human League meets Mighty Boosh’s Future Sailors. And it’s not hard to be entertained by that.

English indie/dance act Does It Offend You, Yeah? (above) soon whipped the crowd into a frenzy even though bassist/vocalist James Rushent was forced to play the gig sitting down. “I broke my leg on stage in L.A.” he told us. “Still, if you’re going to do it anywhere, you might as well do it there.” This prompted chirpy guitarist/vocalist Morgan Quaintance to tell the audience, “And if you’re going to dance, you might as well fucking do it here.” A packed room duly obliged.
Highlights included the surf-punk craziness of Attack Of The 50-Ft Lesbian Octopus and the more subtle indie of Dawn Of The Dead, while the lyrically-banal Let’s Make Out proved to be the singalong anthem of the night. A barnstorming set which surreally included a crowd-surfing appearance from Har Mar Superstar came to a crescendo with We Are Rock Stars and, when the [slightly tiresome] vocodor vocals made way for a banging instrumental chorus, the whole room went nuts.

But the night ended anti-climactically. Despite loud requests from the crowd, the Brits chose not to end with the appropriately-named Epic Last Song, and instead encored with a cover of Devo’s Whip It. While they were perhaps adhering to the notion of leaving the people wanting more, when you only have one album’s worth of material to offer it’s surely a foolhardy decision not to play what is unquestionably your best song, especially when the crowd is literally crying out for it. Did its omission disappoint us? Yeah.

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