Celadore

Walking up the stairs of Revolver, memories came flooding back. It’s been many, many years since this scribe was last at this venue. Thankfully, the band room at Revolver still has that cosy and intimate feel to it, like you are watching bands in a friend’s lounge room – always part of the charm.

First up this evening were Ikarii. The four piece played some inoffensive but utterly generic ‘chugga-chugga-bam-bam’ alternative sounding pop that would have sounded right at home on triple j in the early to mid nineties or, if they wanted to sound what they thought was ‘cutting edge’, Triple M. While enjoyable, it was nothing that one hadn’t heard before.

Ikarii, however, sounded like The Beatles when compared to the next act. Cold Hiker proved to be an incredibly frustrating live experience. It was a classic case of ‘one step forward, three back’ for this scribe. The band themselves have a not uninteresting sound to them, drawing on sources like Black Sabbath and some beautifully melodic pop for their sonic inspiration. However, all of these interesting qualities are completely undone by lead singer Miller Upchurch.

Constantly flipping between keys and octaves, and not in a good Freddie Mercury kind of way, Upchurch’s voice sounded very put on and fake, especially when trying to hit high notes a la Jeff Buckley or Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. It was completely at odds with the music and negated what good work the rest of the band were doing. The result was barely listenable. Cold Hiker mentioned this was their last show of the year. Let’s hope they really work on their style or get a new lead singer in the meantime. Currently, they are, in a word, shite!

Thankfully, the headlining act, local boys Celadore, put in an enjoyable set for the small but attentive crowd gathered. The three piece specialise in nineties style alternative pop, but with a highly serrated edge to it. This is a band that truly is a home with white noise, feedback and all things to do with general sonic terrorism. Tonight, the band were promoting their new EP, The Bright & The Blue and their set featured some great tracks such as “Burn Down The Lighthouse”, “She Winds You Up”, and the sensational “Distance Is A Gun”, off their first EP of the same name.

The band were gleefully rowdy in their sonic assault during this very enjoyable hour long set. Front man Michael Cooper has a great sing/scream to him that suits the material well. Other musical highlights included the noisy as hell “Bakery” and the crunchy “Kinks In Armour” off their latest EP, which was produced by The Living End’s Chris Cheney.

– Neil Evans