Up and Over

On Sunday night, I was at The Mod Club to catch 2 acts from Australia. It was opener's Carla Geneve first tour outside her native country. With a slight Aussie accent peeking through some words, guitar string bends, and observational lyrics on songs like Greg's Discount Chemist and I Hate You, Geneve had a vibe similar to her fellow compatriot Courtney Barnett. She endeared to the audience by declaring (and singing) that Neil Young was one of her favourite musicians.

The crowd tonight was closer in size to San Cisco's The Garrison gigs than the packed mob at their last Mod Club show. There was a number of Australian ex-pats to cheer them on. Their new songs, both from the next as-yet unreleased album (Flaws, Skin) and 2017's The Water (Hey, Did I Do You Wrong?, The Distance), felt more "grown-up" with more contemplative verses. But there was also plenty of the catchy, breezy hits from their earlier work including Fred Astaire, Awkward, and We Spend Too Much Time Together to keep their twenty-something fanbase dancing. The evening had a friendly living-room vibe with lead singer Jordi Davieson asking if the street party outside (Taste of Italy festival) was for The Raptors winning a hockey game, commenting on how polite the Canadian crowd was between songs unlike his fellow Aussies back home, and refusing good-naturedly to drink a shoey at the urging of the Aussies in the audience.