The Black Keys and Gomez at Luna Park

Here's an extended version of my Black Keys and Gomez review that appeared in Drum Media:THE BLACK KEYS
GOMEZ
ASH GRUNWALD
DR. DOG
Big Top, Luna Park
09/01/09

There are plenty of reasons to dismiss Dr. Dog: the shit name, the straw hats and neckerchiefs, their blatantly signposted influences. However, while all the nuances of their music were washed away by the ugly, booming Big Top sound, there was still plenty to enjoy in their country-rock reminiscence. The Philadelphia five-piece’s intelligently-crafted tracks had alternating lead vocals and some were played with bounce while others, like The Breeze, were more slowly built-up.

“I won’t be long dude. It’s alright,” Ash Grunwald joked with a bored-looking Gomez fan in the crowd. With his dreadlocks and shorts, he wouldn’t have looked out of place busking in the tunnel under Central Station, but it wasn’t long before his bone-shaking blues won the crowd over. Half-an-hour and a broken string later, Grunwald made way for a band that seemed to be the main draw for a large section of the crowd.

Gomez received a rapturous reception as they took to the stage. Anyone hoping to hear the big-hits from their debut album, Bring It On, would have been disappointed though, as the band was clearly saving them up for the special tenth anniversary show the following night. Still, Silence and Rhythm & Blues Alibi sounded great. While they might look more like school teachers than rock stars nowadays, new song Back Seat Driver showed they still have fire in their bellies. The most notable aspect of their performance was Ben Ottewell’s vocal. Even ten years after he first unleashed his rich, gravelly voice on an unsuspecting music public, it still sounds extraordinary.Under the backdrop of a massive dream-catcher and totem-pole, The Black Keys set about ripping the room apart with their garage-blues. Drummer Patrick Carney was an absolute monster – all arms and legs – as he bashed the skins harder than anyone has ever hit anything. Meanwhile, beardy guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach came up with one catchy blues riff after another. An extended version of the delicious Girl Is On My Mind was a highlight, as was 10am Automatic. It was visceral stuff, like The White Stripes back when they were thrilling and dangerous.

Two scruffy dudes with drums and one guitar doesn’t sound like the kind of music that would be irresistible to dance to, but there didn’t seem to be a single person in the room who could keep still during their hour-long set.

Gomez interview

AS GOMEZ HEAD TO AUSTRALIA TO CELEBRATE THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF DEBUT ALBUM, BRING IT ON, VOCALIST/GUITARIST IAN BALL REMINISCES WITH ROB TOWNSEND

“I can see why people like that album, because there isn’t really anything else around like it. It’s very rough and innocent-sounding, and the sort of thing that you can only really pull off once because, once you learn stuff, it’s hard to recapture the innocence.”

Bring It On, Gomez’s debut long-player, was a huge success upon its release in 1998, scooping the much-coveted Mercury Music Prize in the UK and launching the career of a band that, four more studio albums on, is still going strong. Now, the Brits celebrate Bring It On’s tenth anniversary with a special live performance of it at The Metro. “We did the show in England first. A promoter just phoned us up and said: ‘Do you guys want to do it?’” vocalist/guitarist Ian Ball explains on the phone from his home in Los Angeles. “At first we were like: ‘Is that going to be good? Is it going to be bad? Is it going to be weird?’ We had no idea, but we were like: ‘Fuck it, let’s give it a go.’” While Ball says he is generally keener on looking forward rather than back, he admits the first show was so great they couldn’t resist doing some more. “It was really strange, nostalgic, fun and kind of nice. [Doing the Bring It On shows] isn’t really for us; you know what I mean? We’d rather be doing new stuff, but it was a huge album for a lot of people. Since then, people have got married, had kids and then divorced. Some people have moved continents. All this shit had been going on for a lot of people and this brought them all together again. So it was like we were doing a public service.”

Following the success of these nostalgic gigs in the UK, the band is heading this way to perform the album in its entirety for its Australian fans. Through years of being played live, the songs have evolved to such an extent that trying to recreate them as they were originally written caused a lot of head-scratching in rehearsals. “If we were to rearrange the songs now with the knowledge gained over years of making records, they’d be totally different. So we ended up trying to resist the urge to change things. We had gotten so used to the newer arrangements that we had to unlearn all of that stuff.”
There were some aspects though, that the band couldn’t resist revamping. “We’ve properly re-sampled the badly cut-up old samples,” Ball explains, his English accent ever so slightly tinted with an American twang picked up from living in The States. “We’re wizards at that stuff now, so it sounds much clearer. Most people at the gig will be too drunk to notice though,” he chuckles.

While they have played songs like Whippin’ Piccadilly and Get Myself Arrested more times than they can count, the anniversary gigs have afforded Gomez the opportunity to roll out some long-forgotten tracks. “We’d never, ever played Bubble Gum Years live, because it was too difficult. It had been hiding at the end of the album for ten years, never doing anything. Now, all of a sudden, it comes back to life.”

Looking ahead, Ball explains that the Bring It On show and support slot for The Black Keys are unlikely to be the last we see of Gomez this year. A brand new album is set to be released in the next few months, and the band is keen to revisit Australia as soon as possible. “The gigs are always really cool there. Maybe there is something in the way our live shows are based around getting drunk, having a good time and losing your inhibitions for a couple of hours. That is very much the attitude in Australia.” By the affection in Ball’s voice, it is clear that this country clearly holds a special place in the band’s heart. He explains it is a long-standing love affair. “We didn’t really have any expectations the very first time that we came over. We were pretty young at the time and it was magical. The summer was just starting to break, everyone was really friendly to us, we had a bit of spare time to check the place out and drink some wine and we were like: ‘This place is fucking awesome.’