Reviewed on Friday May 10

The intimate size of the backroom at Goodgod gives gigs a delightful lounge-room feel, with the bands setting up onstage only a few feet away, plugging in their equipment and testing sound levels. It keeps things nice and relaxed, as Amy Franz and Hayley McKee sidle into a slightly scrappy hour-long set, plowing through most of their excellent new album Crosswords and a selection of older material.

You can hear the influence of producer Mikey Young (Eddy Current Suppression Ring) in Crosswords – lots of simple ECSR-style driving, chugging, head-nodding guitar lines to accompany their ear for a catchy three-minute garage pop tune with ‘60s girl group harmonies.

And for a pair that professes to have been “barely able to play instruments” when they first caught the buzz wave, their instrument multi-tasking could put any one-person-band to shame.

They’re both seriously kick-arse drummers and solid guitarists, but witness McKee punishing the drum kit while playing the bassline on a keyboard with one hand and simultaneously singing back-up vocals and tell me you don’t feel a little lazy and incompetent.

‘Alligator’ and ‘Memphis’ are highlights, prompting extra enthusiastic head nodding from the circle of mesmerised, staring dudes with hands in pockets ringing the stage, and all too quickly it’s over, with no time for an encore because we have to clear out for the club night.

If this really was a lounge-room gig, right now we’d be demanding they exhaust their repertoire and play covers until the sun comes up, but as it is we just have to sidle out nursing little crushes.

BY NICK JARVIS

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine