Wagons, Wilson, Git

On Friday I went to my first pub concert in years. Since I moved to Richmond I am now only a few minutes away from the Corner Hotel so I have one less excuse for missing good music. I was thinking of going to the launch of Git's new CD Flowers (warning: their web site has popups) and Tim, who is a big fan of theirs, convinced me to go.

The first band to play was Wagons (or three fifths of them, they didn't really explain what happened to the other two members), a country/rock band with songs from the morbid and melancholy end of the lyrical spectrum. A man standing near me described the leader, Henry Wagons, as the alt.country version of Dave Graney. I had never heard of Wagons but their raw, energetic set made me want to hear more from them.

Next came Chris Wilson and Shannon Bourne. I heard them two years ago in the Melbourne Concert Hall, opening for Richard Thompson. The huge, spacious concert hall just isn't appropriate for blues harmonica, and in any case I was only there to worship at the feet of my Hero so everything else was a distraction. Tonight, though, Wilson and Bourne were in a better setting and I could actually listen to Bourne's guitar playing without comparing him to the incomparable RT. They really put all of themselves into their music. It's not music I'd go out of my way to hear but I wouldn't run away from it either.

While the stage was being set up for Git I checked my train timetable and figured I could only spare about twenty minutes if I wanted to catch a train home (no money for a taxi). Git announced that they would play the songs from Flowers in sequence and I stayed for the first three. I could probably have risked a bit more time. I had heard Flowers and one or two other songs on the radio previously. For me Git's most distinctive feature is their soprano voices in harmony, which can be joyful or irritating depending on my mood. I am going to try to get the album. I doubt I would want to take it with me to a desert island, but I can see that there would be certain moods and times of day when it's just what I want to hear. Besides, I know some other people who might like their style and I'll try to get them to hear it.

The friend I went to the show with has made his own comments on his web site and in a newsgroup.