Melbourne is bursting at the seams with talent. Literally, every night of the week, one is able to find live music of the highest pedigree. It just so happens that on this Saturday night just passed, we at Tone Deaf found ourselves at The Toff In Town. The Fearless Vampire Killers, who were celebrating the release of their brand new single, “For You and Me”, shared the stage on the evening with two of Australia’s finest; Tessa & the Typecast and Dirt Farmer.
The evening started off quietly. When Dirt Farmer took to the stage there were only a handful of people in the upmarket mid-city venue. The Toff is a different kind of live music venue. For one, it’s not dingy. The décor is chic and the sound is pristine. Dirt Farmer is a relatively young band who have yet to launch their debut single. The vocal duties are shared between the guitarist and the bassist, who, it might be added, knows his way around his bass guitar very comfortably. The first couple of songs featured a lap steel player, whose sound was unfortunately crippled by a faulty cable. After a quick change they continued with their short, but memorable set.
Tessa & The Typecast are the next big thing. Mark these words. Tessa commands the stage like an old pro. By the time they took to the stage, the venue was filling up significantly. Their Florence & The Machine-esque sound had the crowd begging for more and Tessa had them eating out of her palm. They performed their brand new single Straight on ‘til Morning which debuted on Triple J last week, to much acclaim.
By the time The Fearless Vampire Killers were ready to go, the venue was packed. FVK have been around for a while, yet they’re still yet to release their debut album. This doesn’t matter. They’ve managed to build up a strong following of fans, many of whom were front and centre anticipating the band behind the now drawn curtain. As the curtain rose, the band launched into their signature rockabilly-meets-surf-guitar sound. Sean Ainsworth delivered an unexpected booming vocal while the rest of the band bounced around the stage like multiple balls in a pinball machine. “And now I guess the reason we’re all here. Our new single, ‘For You and Me’”. A simple enough introduction. That’s all it needed. The song pretty much does all the talking for itself. Towards the end of the set FVK performed a version of The Beatles’ “Yer Blues”. Dare we say that their version may even be better than original? You don’t have to take our word for it, though. The Fearless Vampire Killers should be all over festival stages within the year.
– Brett Schewitz
