Music Students Showcase Review
By Tessa Muskett
School music nights. They begin in pre-school. A group of toddlers singing either so absent-mindedly or so earnestly that that the cute factor makes the excuse for a musical experience endurable. As the years pass, more instruments are picked up, put down and talents are found. Eventually, the especially gifted choose to pursue further education studying music. At UOW the course available is Sound Composition and Music Production.
Wednesday 30th April 2008 saw the SCMP students come together to present Pre-Amp, a showcase of their original material, technical skills and delivery in a live setting. UniBar has been the venue for the best live acts in Australia. The opportunity for students to play here is a realistic setting in terms of the types of venue successful popular musicians play in. There is a bar, dance floor and a big stage with professional equipment and very importantly, an audience. This was utilized by some acts better than others. This is probably a reflection of how they would like to pursue music. It was an opportunity to see if it is what they are aspiring to; to separate the rock stars and DJs from the film score writers and those with classical tendencies, for example.
There were eleven different acts.
A group of first years kick started the night with a rock/instrumental piece featuring bongo drums. They passed a ‘unique’ hat between themselves, or rather chucked it at each other, which was a typically indie gimmick. Definitely a generalization but I can just imagine a teen-aged Dappled Cities doing something like this. It leads to film clips with furry costumes. They seemed a bit nervous and awkward but one of the great things about the creative degrees is that you can watch the talents be nurtured over the years. Their timing was loose as if they were poorly prepared. The lack of a vocalist often makes it harder to draw the audience into the performance but in the future, look out!
Next it was a one man and one computer show. Stuart played sine waves for a couple of minutes. At times he seemed focused but at others nervous of what he was doing. It was like he couldn’t believe that he was going to get away with it. Apparently he “likes to remove the pretentiousness from avant-garde laptop music” in part by not being “too serious”. Uh-huh.
Amy Copeland, our host for the night, was joined by her brother and Dan. They played a couple of vocal-heavy songs with lyrics centred around control and the nature of life. Evanescence was a clear influence on her music. As with many of the acts the music that inspires and influences these young
musicians often dominated their original work, giving one the feeling that they had heard it before.
Luke’s DJ set was a definite highlight and had me considering whether I should pursue my career as a rapper because if those beats were combined with my talent and charisma, the product would be a surefire rocket to number one. It also had me consider, on a more realistic level, whether I should have entertainment at my next party if it could be of that caliber. His beats and the way they carried the mixing of songs was very professional helping to keep the audience with him in such transitions. Go go go! Maybe the next Muscles, but less wimpy, with heavier bass lines and electro focus. Luke bopped along despite the lack of dancing as the mood was appreciative rather than party. As with a couple of the acts, this set stretched a little long for some of the watchers. “Luke harnesses the progressive techno style, but his other influences include drum and bass and psychedelic trance music”. You have to hear it to believe it.
Delta Goodrem is a household name. The second year that performed next had her Delta moments tonight. She played the piano and sang along with a sense of honesty.
Experimental electro with effects loaded onto the vocals is one way to describe what we heard next. It was a drawn out set, but done so in a way that added to the music, to an extent. As a director Martin Scorsese believes in long camera shots as they get the audience to re-invest themselves in the scene and look for new meaning. I felt like a bit of this was going on in this performance. The start also reminded me of Ratatat’s music although there seemed to be more of an emphasis on emptiness as the set progressed.
With a Nick Cave-esque drawl, the front man of local trio Tetanus Rig led the band through a set that had elements enough to propel it. They had an artsy/garage feel that was both endearing and alienating at once.
The final act for the night was a bluesy type effort put forward by a group of six students, collectively, The Jailhouse Franklin Blues Band. Greg Foster shredded on gee tar with his metal leanings melding into something that complimented the music really well. Mitch Tighe did his best to be the entertaining front man. It was clear that these guys, although serious musicians, were having a bit of fun with the performance. With Blues names such as Sleepy No Show Junior, Red Jimmy Phoenix and Fingers Foster you begin to think that maybe these guys are a little too into the whole thing!
If you have the chance, make the effort to support the SCMP students in the future. The experience can be a very enjoyable and interesting one, especially when the material is as varied as it was on this night, providing a little something for everyone’s different tastes.
NB: Quotes come from the Voltage 2008 program.
